Cop, soldier will be retried for killing of Mariano

Two law enforcement officers accused of killing a Belize City youth will get a re-trial. That’s the ruling of the Court of Appeal handed down today for B.D.F. soldier Giovanni Gutierrez and Police Constable Dennis Palacio. According to the justices, the trial judge should have informed the jury in his address that the men were law enforcement officers and therefore allowed to carry guns and make arrests in the performance of their duty. The duo’s sentence was quashed and a new trial ordered. Both men were granted bail of five thousand dollars each, which they met.

In June 2005, the men were sentenced to ten years in jail by Justice Troadio Gonzalez after a jury found Gutierrez guilty of manslaughter and Palacio guilty of abetment to manslaughter for the death of Aaron Mariano. Mariano was shot and killed on September tenth, 2003, by Gutierrez after Palacio allegedly told the soldier to fire at the twenty-three year old as he was fleeing from police.