While the political gods continue to throw a shroud of protection around former Minister of State Elvin Penner, the fates seem to be conspiring against him. Today, leave for judicial review was granted by Justice Courtney Abel in the recall petition of Penner. It’s only the first step, but it is a significant one. The […]
The Caribbean Court of Justice today issued a decision in the case of Doctor Raju Meenavalli versus Janae Matute and her mother, Georgia. The decision was delivered from Port of Spain via teleconference. The CCJ upheld a decision by the Court of Appeal that Doctor Meenavalli failed to act in accordance with professional standards causing […]
On Wednesday night, twenty-two-year-old Leon Gomez was found not guilty of murder for the January 2010 stabbing death of Salvador Martinez. He was however, found guilty of manslaughter. The verdict was announced shortly before nine o’clock, after a jury of twelve deliberated for over four hours before emerging with a not guilty verdict for murder. […]
In the Supreme Court today, the murder trial of Leon Gomez was summed up by Justice Adolph Lucas and at news time, a jury was still deliberating. Gomez, a Belize City youth at the age of eighteen was charged with the murder of Salvador Martinez which occurred on January eighteenth, 2010, at the MCC grounds […]
A mother of five children, the youngest only one year old, was today imposed a non-custodial sentence and fined a whopping ten thousand dollars for drug trafficking. The court also ordered that she pay five thousand dollars immediately or serve a jail term. The house of thirty-five year old Roshawn Higgs, a mother and domestic […]
Richard Waight Sr., Father of Murder Victim [File: April 7th, 2014] “The last conversation I had with my son dah fi know how much pain ih deh ina. The last conversation me and my son manage fi have dah day deh…when my son look pan me and say dad; ih say I eena pain. Ih […]
Two contractors, a Belizean and a Salvadoran with permanent residency in Belize, were before the court on separate charges for employing persons not in possession of a valid temporary working permit. One pleaded not guilty, is challenging the Immigration Department and will be tried on the charge. The other, a Salvadoran national wasted no […]
Less than five hours after the murder in Hattieville, Rural Belize Police officers responded to a shooting incident in front of Blue House Bar on the Phillip Goldson Highway. Ladyville Police say that they apprehended two persons; forty-seven year old Dennis Burke and thirty-one year old Oscar Perez for the incident that occurred just before […]
In December 2013 American national John Downard, a Director and someone who was living in Belize and going back and forth to the United States was busted at the PGIA in possession of what authorities say was a controlled drug. It turns out the substance was nothing more than hemp seeds which are used for many […]
On March thirtieth, twenty-five year old Henry Pleytes reportedly went to get two of his children from his common-law-wife, Jessica Hernandez, whom he claims, had taken them with her to a bar. But while heading home Pleytes claims the police pulled up on him and he was beaten badly, to a point where he could […]
A Belize City man who police had charged for Keeping an Unlicensed Firearm and Ammunition was set free today in the court room of Magistrate Dale Cayetano. Police claimed that when they busted the house of thirty-two year old Kenroy Vanzie on January first 2013, they found a nine millimeter pistol and six live rounds […]
On March fourteenth, 2014, the Court of Appeal set aside a conviction on fifty-six year old Viola Pook for the murder of her common-law-husband, forty-eight year old Orlando Vasquez, and ordered a retrial. Pook was escorted back to court this morning before Justice Adolph Lucas and was informed that her retrial has been set for […]
Remember Stephen Buckley? He was awarded a sizeable settlement after he was shot multiple times to the head by an inspector of police which left him unable to work. Well today, the forty-two year old, together with six others, including his wife, were before the court today after being charged for possession of a controlled […]
Belize City Mayor Darrell Bradley was back in court today representing himself and once again he seems to be heading down the rocky road leading to his possible incarceration. The Mayor dodged that bullet in July 2013 when he managed to reach a settlement with Belize Waste Control at the eleventh hour. But now, he’s […]
There is another acquittal though for a lesser offence to report tonight. Back in May 2010, the wife of the then Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Development Juan Coy, was killed in a traffic accident in the area of Indian Creek Village. Juan and his wife, Brigida, were traveling along with Venancio […]
Two men have been charged for fisheries offences after they were found with eight hicatees at a fishing camp in Sand Hill. Fifty-three year old Goldburn Seguro, who is the driver for a judge, and his nephew Hilberto Seguro were busted by a Fisheries Officer at around midnight on March twenty-seventh, in an area behind […]
A fifty-five year old man was before the court today to answer to the charge of Theft. He is accused of stealing nine hundred and fifty dollars worth of items from Paula Almendarez. Percival Usher, a resident of Central American Boulevard, appeared before Chief Magistrate Anne Marie Smith and was arraigned on a single charge […]
A woman was raped in the wee hours of last Friday at mile ten and a half on the Phillip Goldson Highway; her alleged attacker was detained at the scene of the crime by police. This morning, a Belize Water Service employee, fifty-one year old Eugene Reneau was arraigned for rape in the court of […]
Frank Edwards beat a murder charge back in 2011 before Justice Troadio Gonzalez but he was in the Belmopan Supreme Court this week on a robbery charge. Edwards was accused in one of the biggest bank heists in Belize in which a security guard was murdered. Today, he walked free after the prosecution entered a […]
Fifty-one year old May Bush, convicted of the June 2011 stabbing death of David Guerra, has been sentenced to thirteen years for manslaughter. On March seventh, a jury of twelve found Bush not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter. This morning in mitigation, the mother of thirteen, called a character witness to speak on […]
A written judgement is yet to follow, but a decision was verbally handed down in the case of Magistrate of San Ignacio, Nardia Morgan. Morgan defended herself in trial this morning before Judge Courtney Able in the Supreme Court. The case is unprecedented because a Jamaican born sitting magistrate found it necessary to take the […]
Former Minister of State Elvin Penner appeared in Belmopan Magistrate’s Court this morning where he was criminally charged for his involvement in the immigration scandal. Despite what appears to be overwhelming evidence and multiple investigations, in the end charges were not brought against Penner by the Police. In fact, if it were not for the […]
On March third, the Supreme Court issued landmark directives to Commissioner of Police Allen Whylie to investigate Elvin Penner and the Won Hong Kim passport scandal. The court took that rare step after it determined that the ComPol had not fulfilled his duty and obligation to investigate. But even as that investigation has allegedly gotten […]
While Penner was arraigned in Belmopan, in the San Ignacio Court, Gabino Garnett Junior was charged for murder. Garnett Junior was wanted by San Ignacio police in connection with the stabbing death of Earl Baizar and is tonight on remand at the Belize Central Prison after his arraignment this morning before magistrate Nardia Morgan. […]
Country Representative for U.S. Capital Energy Ltd., Alistair King, as well as Executive Director Greg Ch’oc, of the Sarstoon-Temash Institute for Indigenous Management, SATIIM, were back in court this morning. Both parties awaited a decision by Justice Michelle Arana for an injunction to halt pre-drilling activities within the Sarstoon-Temash National Park, formerly co-managed by SATIIM. […]
