Charges dropped against defendant in Princess heist

Charges were dropped today against a Belize City youth accused of robbing the Princess Hotel of over thirty thousand dollars. The action was taken this morning in the course of an application for bail for twenty-one year old Leon Rodriguez. During the presentation by attorney Dickie Bradley, Justice Troadio Gonzalez concluded that there was not enough evidence against Rodriguez to make out even a prima facie case. All charges against the defendant were withdrawn and he was free to leave. Rodriguez was charged along with Callum Sutherland and former Princess employee Alfred Conorquie for robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery. On February twentieth, a lone gunman robbed the hotel of thirty-three thousand, five hundred and fifty dollars as the money was being transported from the front desk to the accounts office. He then escaped in a car waiting outside the compound. The charges against the other two men remain.