A jury of five women and four men will decide the fate of siblings, Jermaine and Austin Stevens, who are currently on trial for rape and abetment to rape, respectively. The brothers were arrested and charged back in March of 2012 for the rape of a then eighteen-year-old female. According to the victim, whilst staying […]
A Biscayne sculptor and farmer was today spared from going to jail after pleading guilty to discharging a firearm in public. Fifty-three-year-old Robert Westby today appeared before Magistrate Herbert Panton where he pleaded guilty to the offense; fortunately for him, the magistrate imposed a non-custodial sentence and fined Westby three hundred dollars, plus the cost […]
Nineteen-year-old Ernesto Vasquez of Antelope Street Extension was remanded to the Belize Central Prison for the killing of Herbert Bowden. Vasquez was unrepresented in Magistrate’s Court today when he was charged with a single count of murder. While no plea was taken, Magistrate Herbert Panton asked the accused why he was named in the murder […]
Allen Valencia was immediately detained on Friday after a group of protesters threw eggs and water at former Immigration Minister Elvin Penner when he exited the Supreme Court that day in Belize City. While only one of the missiles thrown missed the intended target, another one caught Sylvester Maldonado, who is believed to be Penner’s […]
This morning, former Immigration Minister turned public pariah, Elvin Penner, had eggs, but it wasn’t sunny side up and it wasn’t for breakfast. The former U.D.P. Minister, who was fired for his role in immigration offences primarily for facilitating a passport to a jailed South Korean fugitive, was stoned with eggs by protesters gathered in […]
Those protesters who gave Elvin Penner such a warm send-off had been gathered outside the Courtroom since before nine that morning. He was in court because COLA contends that when he was acquitted of immigration offences in July 2014, the Magistrate did so erroneously. So they have appealed the decision of the inferior court at […]
Twenty-three-year-old Leon Gomez has been on remand at the Belize Central Prison since April 2010, following the death of Salvador Martinez who was stabbed multiple times during an altercation among friends. Martinez was fatally injured at a football match at the MCC Grounds in January 2010. While Gomez has been languishing in pretrial detention for […]
The Belize Grassroots Youth Empowerment Association had its day today, and it wasn’t even in court. The organization got one up on G.O.B. in the second mediation session to settle an old dispute. Since last July, the two parties were issued with a mediation order by the court. It started earlier this year and today, […]
Matura-Shepherd says that the agreement will be taken to court and returned as a court order. She says that they expect implementation to go smoothly because they were very judicious in their discussions and detailed with the terms in signing off on the agreements. Matura-Shepherd told the media that with the mediation completed, the issues […]
It may very well be the largest fine to be imposed on a family for fisheries offenses, but this morning a father and his son along with the father’s three brothers were taken to court for the Possession of Undersized Conch. At the conclusion of the case, they were slapped with a whopping thirty thousand […]
A twenty-seven year old Ladyville resident was today before the court for twice exposing his person to a woman living in the Vista Del Mar area, but whose name is being withheld. The suspect is Ehud Haulze, a gas attendant in Ladyville. This afternoon, Haulze was before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser for the incident which […]
The trial of two Bahamian nationals who were charged by the Financial Intelligence Unit back on September twelfth, 2014, came to a close today after months before the courts and testimonies of twelve witnesses. The duo, Kelvin Leach and Rohn Knowles, were detained by police at the Philip Goldson International Airport as they tried to […]
A well-known Belize City businessman, Joseph Meighan of JB’s Security Firm, was hauled to court today for failure to pay three months of Social Security for his workers. This morning, Meighan appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith to answer to a single charge of failure to pay Social Security for workers employed in September, […]
The unprecedented move by air traffic controllers, who reportedly called in sick, is being called an industrial action. Service was restored around midday, but by then the damage had been done. The events that unfolded at the P.G.I.A. prompted a press conference by the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation. In a prepared statement followed […]
This morning, before Justice Shona Griffith, a battery of lawyers representing various parties, including the Government of Belize, the Belize Sugar Industry, the Belize Sugar Cane Farmers Association, the Sugar Industry Control Board and Lucilo Teck, met in session. The substantive hearing followed a successful application several weeks ago by attorneys Audrey Matura-Shepherd, Anthony Sylvester […]
According to Senior Counsel Michael Young, the claimants got off on a wrong foot when they filed the application erroneously. Despite being granted permission to proceed with the claim, another mistake had been committed and that was what Courtenay pointed out in court today. Furthermore, the exercise, says Young, was irrelevant since a date for […]
Lucilo Teck, a canero himself, initiated the legal process by seeking from Matura-Shepherd and proceeding with the suit. He expressed disappointment with the outcome of the case. Lucilo Teck, Claimant “I cannot go against the ruling of the court. I support the court’s decision and it must be fair for the court to take […]
This morning, preliminary inquiries determined that a minor along with Clive Geban will stand trial for the January nineteenth, 2013 murder of Ervin Moralez, a Maskall villager, who was hacked to death inside his home. The PI occurred in the courtroom of Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith. Corporal Christopher Smith relied on caution statements given […]
Steven Buckley – he’s the man who became the poster boy of police brutality in 2010 after he was shot to the head by a cop while he was sitting inside a parked vehicle off Fabers Road. That incident left him with limited use of some of his limbs, and his long legal battles to […]
Here at News Five we can’t remember any time when so many politicians have seen the inside of a Courtroom on such a variety of charges…serious and frivolous. In Orange Walk, two politicians from the P.U.P. side were charged criminally two weeks ago, and this morning it was U.D.P. mayoral candidate, Yvette Lui Torres, who […]
A Belize City resident got bail today for charges relating to the traffic fatality that took the life of seventy year old well know educator, Maria Knowles. At around one-thirty on Tuesday afternoon, Knowles was hit by a vehicle at the corner of Water Lane and Baghdad Street in Belize City. After spending two nights […]
After living in Belize for five years, Haitian national, twenty-five year old Obed Lewis, was found without valid documents to ascertain his status in the country. He was today before the courts to answer to a single immigration offense of Failure to Produce Documents when Requested by an Immigration Officer. The King’s Park resident wasted […]
Stephen Buckley came to public life when he was shot in the head by the police and he subsequently settled with the government part of a compensation package. But tonight, Buckley is behind bars for old fines of three hundred and sixty dollars for two convictions for weed possession. This morning, Buckley, who is a […]
Forty-six year old Santos Oliva, a stevedore of Freedom Street in Belize City was before the court this morning to answer to one count of Sexual Assault upon a Minor and one Count of Grievous Harm upon the Minor. The underage girl is accusing him of touching her inappropriately and causing her grievous harm. The […]
Three men were free of murder charge today when they appeared in Belmopan Supreme Court. Twenty-two year old Anthony Dennison, twenty-four year olds Traevon Williams and Denfield Tasher were acquitted of the 2010 shooting death of businesswoman Zhen Nong Zheng in Santa Elena, Cayo. In trial, Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez of the D.P.P.’s office relied […]
