As incredible as it sounds, twenty-year old Maverick Akeem Forbes felt the need to commit a crime to get a fifteen-dollar police record. That’s what Forbes told Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser this morning. Tonight, the Hunter Lane resident is on remand at the Belize Central Prison for a week pending sentencing after he pleaded guilty […]
Fifty-seven-year-old Viola Pook, convicted of the murder of her common law husband Orlando Vasquez, was sentenced to life in prison in July 2011. She was found guilty of killing her forty-seven-year-old spouse after lighting him on fire inside their residence in Rancho Dolores Village in January 2009. The Court of Appeal subsequently overturned her conviction, […]
Three men accused of the murder of Ramon Cervantes Senior were back in Court today for what was expected to be just a procedural matter, but that was turned upside down by an explosive accusation made by one of the accused. According to reports from inside the Courtroom, while on the stand one of the […]
Twenty-six year old Michael Cowo is in prison tonight after pleading guilty to stealing a computer and accessories from a parked car. But unknown to him, Cowo was caught in the act by surveillance camera as he stole the computer bag containing a Dell laptop, a tablet and other items from a Nissan car belonging […]
Major decisions were handed down today by the Supreme Court. Justice Courtney Abel issued a judgment largely in favor of developer of the Stake Bank cruise port Michael Feinstein today. It is hoped the court decision will clear the way for the building of the all-important tourism installation without interference from the standing port of […]
Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck, the attorney for Feinstein, outlined the two reliefs won by his client out of the five he sued for. Most important, he says, is that there is no need for any indemnity as asked for by the Government to insure against potential challenge by FSTV for breach of contract. Marshalleck told […]
Seven weeks since the start of Keyren Tzib’s bail application and after many adjournments, Judge Troadio Gonzalez finally made a determination earlier today and it was not good news for Tzib. But first he went into detailed explanation of arguments presented by both sides. Judge Gonzalez noted that Tzib was seeking bail from prison due […]
But there was good news for the Yearwood family. A ruling was handed down in the case of slain police officer, Dean Yearwood who was shot and killed in September 2013 by another cop. The family took the government to court in early July of this year since the police officer accused of firing the […]
Tonight a well-known San Pedro resident is behind bars after he was arraigned last week Friday for the rape of a minor. Even though we report on many incidents of rape and all of them are distasteful, this one is right up there with the worst. President of the San Pedro Taxi Association, Alfonso Wiltshire, […]
With great dispatch, the Caribbean Court of Justice this morning threw out the application of the Bar Association to release the stay on the joint appeals before that Court in respect of the nationalizations of Belize Electricity Limited and Belize Telemedia Limited. The settlement of protracted litigation between G.O.B. and both Fortis and the Ashcroft […]
Courtenay says that, as an attorney and as a Belizean, he too would have wanted to hear the decision, but the CCJ was not the proper forum and this was not the proper time for the Bar Association to apply to be an interested party in the case. Eamon Courtenay, Attorney for Fortis/BCB/Dunkeld Intl. […]
Despite criticism that the motion brought before the Caribbean Court of Justice was essentially an academic exercise, Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck says that a decision on the validity of the Eighth Amendment was necessary. After all, a great deal of time and resources had been expended on the process leading up to a judgment from […]
Today, a teenager was arraigned for the weekend murder of Ervin Franklin, who lost his life in a weekend stabbing in the Lord’s Bank area on the Phillip Goldson Highway. After five days of investigations, police levied a single charge of murder against nineteen year old Kafele Garcia. He was arraigned before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie […]
Also in the courts, a man who was accused of killing a resident of Pomona, Stann Creek District, was freed of a murder charge when Justice Denis Hanomansingh ruled that he acted in self defence. Juan Rubio was initially charged for fatally stabbing twenty-six year old Karim Peters on November eighteenth, 2012. In the trial […]
Twenty-eight-year-old Darryl Alvarez, an alleged arsonist, will stand trial in Supreme Court for reportedly torching his aunt’s home in the Gungulung area in August 2014. Alvarez, who was unrepresented, appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith for a preliminary inquiry. During the session, the accused suggested that the Chief Magistrate visit the neighborhood where the […]
Belize City resident, Kendalle Green, who has once beaten a murder charge, was today before the courts accused of escaping from police, obstruction and assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. When the twenty-three-year-old appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith, he pleaded not guilty to the four criminal offenses. This is Green’s first appearance […]
Twenty-four-year-old Keyren Tzib, on remand for manslaughter, will have to wait until Friday for a decision on her bail application status to be handed down. The bail application hearing has stretched out over four weeks, as Justice Troadio Gonzalez hears evidence to determine whether Tzib would be a danger to herself or others if granted […]
Meanwhile, Basil Willis, who is currently out on bail for a number of matters before the courts, was remanded to prison today until December twelfth, 2015 for a most despicable act. The forty-seven-year-old Belize City resident is accused of sodomizing a twenty-three-year-old man over the weekend. According to victim, the incident occurred this past Saturday […]
Gabriel Salazar has beaten a third murder charge, the latest one from the Court of Appeal this week. On July fifteenth, 2013, more than two years ago, Salazar was acquitted of the murder of Francis Johnston, a businessman and store owner of Big Falls, Punta Gorda. Johnston was fatally shot and killed during a robbery […]
Criminal figure, Errol Haynes aka “Butchy”, who was handed down a sentence of three years plus fined ten thousand dollars when he did not show up for his drug related trial two years ago, saw his habeas corpus application dismissed this afternoon by the Chief Justice. In May of this year, when he landed in Belize, […]
Turning to crime…Tonight, two of three suspects in a brazen daylight robbery at the premises of Southern Choice Butane Ltd., located at mile four on the Phillip Goldson Highway, are behind bars. This morning, Kevin Faber and Warren Davis were escorted in handcuffs to court for arraignment before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith. They are […]
Tonight, forty-four year old Honduran driver, a naturalized Belizean, was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court and was slapped with three traffic offenses in relation to a fatal traffic accident on October fifth, 2015 in which eleven year old Tezzrah Diamond Thompson was killed. This morning, after two nights in custody, John Rodriguez was […]
Reports on the number of persons involved in unlawful sex continue to balloon, while the victims are getting younger. Today, twenty-nine year old Hattieville resident, Akeem Alexander Allen, was arraigned for two counts of Unlawful Sexual Intercourse with a young female, only eleven years old. Allen was also charged for one count of Grievous Harm. […]
In 2009, the Government of Belize seized control of B.T.L. and when a court ruling found the nationalization to be null and void, Government renationalized the company in 2011. Now…weeks before the general election on November fourth, G.O.B. has settled with the Ashcroft Group by paying a preliminary sum of one hundred and sixty-two million […]
In an unprecedented move last week, the Bar Association has applied to the Caribbean Court of Justice to release its decisions on the nationalizations of B.E.L. and B.T.L. Both matters were hastily settled only weeks ago, and the settlement stays the decision by the CCJ. But the Bar Association has asked to be included as […]
