Court news: assault, robbery, & dismissal of burglary charges

A Belize City man was today read charges of aggravated burglary and aggravated assault after he tried to interfere with the administration of justice. Twenty-one year old Loren Carr appeared before Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord and pleaded not guilty to the charges. He was remanded to prison until his next court date on April twelfth. According to Lorex Carr, apparently not related to Loren, on January thirty-first Loren went to his house on Iguana Street armed with a gun and demanded that he drop a robbery case against Loren’s brother. When Lorex refused, Loren hit him in the face and then rode off on Lorex’s bike.

Three men accused of breaking into the Alliance Against AIDS office walked out of court today free men. Jamar Gentle, Gary Bowen, and Demus Bowen were jointly charged with burglary and handling stolen goods for the September 2005 robbery of three Dell computers from the NGO’s office. But today when the men appeared in court, the police file was incomplete, lacking information such as the photos of the computers recovered and fingerprints taken from the scene of the crime. Magistrate Dorothy Flowers struck out the case for want of prosecution and told the men they were free to leave. The trio was arrested after a police search of a house on Periwinkle Street turned up the missing merchandise.

A Belize City resident has been arrested and charged with robbery and aggravated assault. Twenty-four year old Deon Pitts was arraigned on the charges in the courtroom of Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord this morning and remanded to custody until April twelfth. Steven Arnold reported to police that on March thirteenth he was socialising with two friends, Stephen Clarke and Anthony McKoy, at the corner of George and Basra streets when two men rode up on bicycles. One of the men pointed a handgun in their direction and they then took turns relieving Arnold and Clarke of two gold chains each. Pitts was arrested after he was picked out of an I.D. parade.