2 men freed of murder charge

Tonight, two men who were on trial for the gruesome murder of Rudolfo Villatoro were freed of the charge. After deliberating for hours, a jury of twelve on Monday afternoon determined that Guillermo Martinez and Nicodemus Rodriguez were not guilty of the murder. A third person charged with the same murder, Gilbert Lamb, was similarly set free last week. On April ninth, 2009 police made a gruesome discovery on Salwood Street in Dangriga. They found Villatoro’s dismembered body inside a pit latrine. His head was slashed, one of his arms had been severed, his two feet were cut off and the body was in an advanced state of decomposition. Lamb, Martinez and Rodriguez were charged but evidence linking them to the brutal murder was weak.   In trial, Lamb was represented by Attorney Arthur Saldivar while Tricia Pitts/Anderson represented Martinez and Rodriguez was represented by attorney, Oswald Twist. The prosecution’s main witness was a female who only could tell the court that on the day of the murder she had seen Martinez and Rodriguez in the company of a man but she could not say if that man was Villatoro. The trial occurred in the Dangriga Supreme Court before Justice Denis Hanomansingh.