On Tuesday, Belize Rural North resident, Trevor Vernon paid half his costs to attorney Denys Barrow, in coins…twenty-five hundred dollars worth on behalf of Minister of State Edmond Castro, who on a technicality won a case brought against him by Vernon for breaching the code of conduct as a government minister. And by Wednesday evening, […]
The Police department is recording a huge drug bust in the Biscayne Village. The department says that around two-thirty on Thursday afternoon, a joint patrol between police, the B.D.F. and the Anti-Drug Operation Unit came up on a marijuana plantation between miles twenty-nine and thirty on the Phillip Goldson Highway, in Biscayne Village. Approximately one […]
The private prosecution brought by COLA against former Minister of State Elvin Penner came back to the courtroom of Magistrate Aretha Ford in Belmopan this morning. Penner sat through the proceedings which concluded before eleven o’clock. No evidence for disclosure has been obtained by COLA because until now the Penner files could not located. With […]
A stepdaughter who felt she was being disrespected pleaded guilty to two counts of harm upon her step mother and her sister. Stephanie Flowers was charged after she admitted to beating up both women, one is her step-mother, Alice Perriott and the other is Perriott’s sister Aretha Budnah. The incident occurred in July 2013 […]
One man was viciously attacked and stabbed to death; the body of twenty-five year old Ezekiel Hernandez was found on Monday morning. This afternoon, forty-three year old taxi operator, Charles Herrera, of Lavender Street, in the Saint Martin De Porres area of Belize City was arraigned for the murder of Hernandez as well as […]
Police Constable Yannick Wade is out on bail. Today, his attorney, Audrey Matura-Shepherd applied for Supreme Court bail for Wade, who has been on remand since May fifth for charges relating to stolen KBH guns and ammunition from the San Pedro Police Station. When he appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith earlier this month, […]
Police have detained and charged twenty-seven year old Mason Patnett, who was on the run after he accidentally shot his accomplice during a robbery on Tuesday. He was picked up at around nine Thursday morning. Patnett and a minor were at the Ladyville basketball court when they approached and robbed eighteen year old Marvin […]
Minister of State Edmond Castro was back in court today; this time he appeared as a witness in a case of theft. A Nicaraguan national, forty-six year old Oscar Hernandez was accused of stealing from Castro a number of tractor parts back in 2012. Hernandez was incarcerated for more than a year since he […]
Former Guatemalan President Alfonso Portillo has been sentenced to roughly six years in a United States prison after being convicted of conspiring with several others to launder millions of dollars through U.S. bank accounts. Portillo, who was extradited in May 2013, following a failed attempt to stave off being deported pleaded guilty in March in […]
There is a conviction for murder. After several hours of deliberation by a jury of seven women and five men, the fate of thirty-seven year old Jason Bruce Lawrence was sealed; life in prison. Lawrence was charged for the murder of his common-law-wife, forty year old Mercedes Carrillo, back in December of 2009 and today […]
A sixty-one year old Honduran national has been sparred jail time for abstracting electricity which is the charge for stealing electricity. Dominga Nunez, a resident of Antelope Street Extension in Belize City, was convicted this morning by Magistrate Dale Cayetano for the offense which occurred on May fourteenth 2013. Prosecutor in the case was Corporal […]
Additional charges are expected to be levied against Marleny Castellanos, the alleged master-mind behind an immigration scam involving residents of Caye Caulker and San Pedro. Castellanos is already facing sixteen counts of assisting persons to use documents they weren’t entitled to use. She and her common-law husband, Wilfredo Gonzalez Marcos, remain on remand behind bars […]
Crooked Tree Fisherman, Kenneth Bruce, was charged on Tuesday for being armed with an offensive weapon. He was offered police bail and today when he appeared before the courts to be arraigned, Magistrate Hettie Mae Stewart dismissed the charge because it was not brought properly before the court. The former musician was accused of assaulting […]
Two men are tonight free from the charge of murder; Adelso Picon Rodriguez and Nilo Morales Valdez who were accused of the March 2010 murder of Valentin Duarte which occurred in Cowpen Village, Stann Creek District. Duarte was shot on March nineteen and hospitalized for five days until he succumbed to injuries on March twenty-fourth, […]
A nephew, who was being tried for a second time for the murder of his uncle, chose to plead guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the Orange Walk session of the Supreme Court. He is Arturo Ek, who was represented by Attorney, Michelle Trapp-Zuniga and Baja Shoman, both from Legal Advice and Services […]
A claim against Minister of State Edmond Castro was struck out by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin this morning. The matter had been before the court since February 2014, when Belize Rural North resident Trevor Vernon accused Castro of breaching the code of conduct under the Constitution. This is in respect of a series of cheques […]
A prison officer was today convicted of drug trafficking inside his work place which is the Belize Central Prison. Ajani Smith Senior was caught with fifty-four grams of marijuana strapped to his body on August twenty-fifth, 2013. Smith initially pleaded not guilty to possession of a control drugs with intent to supply but today, he […]
Two men, one believed to be the mastermind behind a home burglary in the West Landivar area of Belize City, were before the court today to answer to separate charges. They are Jamil Meighan, of Ivor Street in Belize City and Wilfred Javier Stanley. Meighan was the first to be arraigned for burglary in the […]
It’s confirmed. Christian Ebanks, remanded on firearm charges, is Ecuadoran Floyd Ebanks Jurado, wanted for murder in that country. News Five has confirmed that shortly after arriving in Belize, the thirty-nine year fugitive visited the Vital Statistics Department and changed his name. And tonight, there is also confirmation that the Ecuador authorities want him very […]
The arrest of a Guatemalan couple is revealing further details of an ongoing hustle at the Immigration Department. The couple was remanded to prison on Wednesday, after they pleaded guilty to using fraudulent Belizean birth certificates, social security cards, and nationality certificates. But they were back in court today along with a Salvadoran and seven Guatemalan […]
A small crowd packed into the Court of Appeal this afternoon at two o’clock to hear the long anticipated judgment of the Court of Appeal in the cases involving the nationalization of Telemedia and B.E.L. and loans from British Caribbean Bank. The cases were argued in October of 2012. Finally, after a delay of a […]
The Court of Appeal also ruled interestingly on the Eighth Amendment. Respective counsels did not delve into the details of the judgment, and that is fair since neither has had time to scrutinize the lengthy document. But it is clear that the case is heading to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Eamon Courtenay, Attorney […]
Is thirty-nine year old naturalized Belizean Christian Ebanks also Floyd Wendel Ebanks Jurado, one of Ecuador’s most wanted fugitives? That’s the million dollar question, and tonight Police say they are still not sure. On Wednesday, members of the Gang Suppression Unit searched the home of Ebanks, located at number one-twenty-two Teacher Street. They found a […]
A Guatemalan couple is believed to be behind a scam providing fake nationality documents to Central American nationals; they were busted in an immigration crackdown and arraigned on Wednesday even though they were being pursued by immigration personnel when another Guatemalan national applied for a social security card with documents that belonged to a deceased […]
The Opposition’s mouthpiece, the Belize Times, was called to court this morning for non-payment of GST for the months of January and February 2014. The matter first came up on Wednesday, but could not proceed since the name on the charge sheet was that of former manager, Marion Marsden, who was not present in court. […]
