Vince Garbutt is arraigned for murder of ex-girlfriend

Three police officers escorted a university student to the San Ignacio court this morning. Vince Garbutt was handcuffed, as he made his way to the courtroom of Magistrate Nardia Morgan. He was detained and remained in police custody over the weekend for the murder of his ex girlfriend, Kayla Pandy. Pandy left her home in Independence, driving herself to Bullet Tree Falls, Cayo, on Thursday. By the evening of the same day she was found dead in her own car. Swift police work led to Garbutt’s arrest and this morning he was stoic when he was arraigned for Pandy’s murder. News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

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Isani Cayetano, Reporting

Kayla Burgess

Twenty-one-year-old Vince Garbutt, who has since confessed to killing Kayla Burgess last Thursday in San Ignacio, was today arraigned before Magistrate Nadia Morgan.  Garbutt was read a single count of murder when he appeared in court unrepresented this morning.  From the dock, he briefly explained that a partially accurate confession statement had been provided to police in the absence of legal representation, subsequent to his arrest.  The twenty-four-year-old former UB student from Independence was found strangled inside her vehicle after reportedly being abducted and held for ransom.  Kayla’s lifeless body, a zip tie said to be fastened around her neck, was left slumped inside the 2005 Kia Sorento.  The gruesome discovery was made later that evening by residents of Bullet Tree Falls.

While news of the murder spread like wildfire across social media, including speculation of the involvement of Garbutt’s roommate, eighteen-year-old Faith Dueck, her attorney, in a release issued earlier today, addressed the reports.  The statement on behalf of Dueck says, quote, she is no accomplice in the death of twenty-four-year-old Kayla Burgess, and she too is as much a victim of the accused, twenty-one-year-old Vince “Vinnie” Garbutt.  She had just become his roommate, sharing the same house in the Kontiki area the Monday before the murder of Burgess, whom Faith met through Vinnie, who introduced Kayla as a friend…, unquote.

Dueck, who was also detained following the incident, has been released from police custody.  Garbutt, on the other hand, is on remand at the Belize Central Prison until June twenty-fourth.  News Five understands that Garbutt, a student of Galen University, is a deportee from the United States.