It was a busy day at court today, complete with an appearance by Minister of State Edmond Castro. Castro was accused of facilitating visas for Chinese nations and filed suit against the person making the allegations and also Great Belize Productions. The matter hasn’t reached hearing stage, but today the court heard an application by […]
In the Jamaican Supreme Court, an order has been granted preventing the dismissal of Professor Brendan Bain as Director of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Training Network. That is, until a lawsuit against the University of the West Indies is presided over. Professor Bain is challenging the cancellation of his contract, following his decision to provide expert […]
A father and his son are alleging police brutality after police stormed their residence on Mahogany Street Extension and reportedly beat them up for no reason. The home of Nestor Galindo Senior and Junior was raided by police following a weekend shooting, despite the fact that no charges have been levied against them regarding the […]
A San Pedro resident is tonight in police custody for discharging a firearm in public… on two pit bulls. Thirty-three-year-old Byron Ashford Evans was today before the court to answer to a single charge of discharging a point thirty-eight revolver while on Tarpon Street in San Pedro Town. Evans has been in police custody since […]
The feisty Belize Grassroots Youth Empowerment Association, BGYEA, held a small, but significant rally last Saturday called Plant the Corn Rally. Today, it scored a first victory in the Supreme Court where Justice Courtney Abel handed down a decision quashing an injunction brought against the organization by the Government of Belize. BGYEA is determined to […]
While the executive of BGYEA is preparing to go back to its membership with good news, President Nigel Petillo was quite circumspect, avoiding the most pertinent question in the wake of the Supreme Court decision, to plant or not to plant the corn. Nigel Petillo, President, BGYEA “We’re glad that the court system worked […]
This morning, the alleged mastermind in an immigration scam, Marleny Castellanos, was slapped with twenty more charges for illegally aiding at least thirty persons to obtain Belizean nationality documents. Castellanos was in good spirits when she was brought to court. The forty-five-year-old housewife was arraigned before Magistrate Dale Cayetano and she pleaded not guilty to […]
We have reported on a rash of shootings, all gang related, in which nine persons were injured. It all happened in Belize City between Saturday and Tuesday. As investigations continue, police have made one arrest in respect of Tuesday’s shooting on Victoria Street where fortunately no one was injured. An eighteen-year-old former student from Wesley […]
Kenrick Williams, sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a minor in 2004, will remain incarcerated at the Belize Central Prison after a panel of judges at the Court of Appeal upheld his conviction. Williams appeared before the bench today where attorney Phillip Palacio argued on his behalf to have the sentence quashed. […]
Lavern ‘Antichrist’ Longsworth appeared in the Court of Appeal this morning along with her attorney Godfrey Smith. Longsworth was previously convicted for the murder of her common-law-husband, David White, after she threw gasoline on him and lit him on fire. Today, Smith made a submission on behalf of his client for the charge to be […]
Earlier today, a father was before the court to answer to a single count of sexual offense, referred to as a sexual assault, upon his eight year old daughter. According to the child, she was molested by her father in late May. The father is a well-known person and a public officer who lives in […]
A decision by the Supreme Court in a longstanding dispute within the executive of the Belize Ex-Services League has been handed down by Justice Courtney Abel. The administration, led by president Bernard Adolphus, has been at loggerheads with its affiliates over use of the lower flat of its Belize City premises on Newtown Barracks. Despite […]
The second sitting of the Court of Appeal for this year was held today and the bench, which included President Manuel Sosa, Justice Minnett Afiz-Beltran and Justice Samuel Awich, handed down a significant decision in favor of the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions. The D.P.P., Cheryl Lynn Vidal, appealed for a leave of […]
The legal battle for the liberty of Deon Bruce, wanted by U.S. authorities for murder and other related offences, is set for another round of challenge, following a decision by the Supreme Court upholding the judgment of Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith in mid-January. It is the first time in Belize’s history that an application […]
Four cops have been charged in connection with the shooting of a Unitedville youth. The officers: police constables Maxwell Valerio and Jesus Marroquin and Special Constable Ernesto Budna, as well as their patrol leader, Corporal Ricky Valencia, were jointly charged for harm at the San Ignacio Police Station late Thursday evening. Marroquin, however, was additionally […]
On Wednesday, Belize City police arrested and detained a group of tour guides employed by businessman Yhony Rosado, in connection with a violent assault which landed twenty-three-year-old Vitalino Reyes Jr. in a coma at the KHMH a week ago. The rounding up of the five men succeeded the arraignment of co-worker Leon Gentle on Tuesday. […]
Belizean Christian Ebanks, also known as Floyd Ebanks Jurado, was granted bail in the Supreme Court this morning before Justice Troadio Gonzalez. He had been remanded for keeping an unlicensed firearm. Ebanks was arrested on May fifteenth after GSU personnel searched a residence at one twenty-two Teacher’s Street in Belize City. Ebanks was at […]
Marleny Elizabeth Castellanos and Alfredo Orlando Gonzalez, the alleged masterminds behind an illegal immigration hustle, were denied bail in the Supreme Court this morning. They were charged on May thirteenth, 2014 with multiple immigration offences. It is alleged that they charged immigrants fifteen hundred dollars each to secure nationality for them. Six charges were initially […]
Belize City resident Marcia Marie Gillett was today slapped with eighty-five counts of theft before Magistrate Hettie Mae Stewart. She is accused of misappropriating thousands of dollars from her former employer, the Feinstein Group of Companies. The charges took one hour and a half to read. No plea was taken since the matters will be […]
This morning at Independence Magistrate’s Court, the prosecution was unable to provide disclosure in the trial of British national David Taylor. Taylor was arrested in 2012 based on complaints made by a thirteen year old boy. The boy reported that Taylor had intercourse with him on numerous occasions. When Police searched Taylor’s home in Placencia, […]
The Belize Immigration Department has made another arrest in the alleged nationality scam in which a number of persons, mostly immigrants, have been caught using fake birth and nationality certificates. Today, Guatemalan national, Lucia Amador Alvarez, was charged for the two counts of using a Belizean certificate she is not entitled to. The Guatemalan housewife […]
There is positive development in the condition of twenty-three year old Vitalino Reyes Junior. After four days in a coma, Reyes Junior today showed signs of recovery. According to his father, who remains at his bedside at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, Reyes Junior tried to respond by opened his eyes and will remain under […]
Lloyd Alexander King, accused of the cold-blooded murder of Belize City tour guide Ronald Rivers in March 2013, appeared unrepresented before Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser earlier today, where a preliminary case for murder concluded. In court this morning, Inspector Hector Rodriguez submitted as many as twelve witness statements, as well as an autopsy report from […]
Mahogany Heights resident Jerson Grinage, was today arraigned for drug trafficking after he was allegedly busted with three point five ounces of weed in his garage. The twenty-two year old appeared unrepresented before the Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith and pleaded not guilty to the charge. He was offered bail of one thousand dollars plus […]
On May fifth, the Supreme Court ruled that the assets of the Coye Family, frozen for years by the FIU in a money laundering case, be released. But any jubilation was short lived. Just a few hours after that decision was handed down, a Panamanian company called Internet Experts SA, had applied for and been […]
