Arthur Young is a well known street figure with a checkered past. But these days he is a supervisor with the CYDP. Young has kept a low profile in more recent times, but this morning he was slapped with two criminal charges in court. The Cairo Street resident is accused of assaulting police officer, Sheddon […]
Thirty-seven year old Belize City resident, Anthony Ferguson, appeared in court to answer to two counts of threatening words and one count of aggravated assault with a firearm. It is alleged that on Tuesday of this week, Ferguson pulled a gun on Pamela Ferguson and threatened her life twice. Anthony, who appeared unrepresented, pleaded not […]
Another adjournment was today granted by Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin in the high profile case of attorney Rodwell Williams, who was shot near the parking lot of his law firm, Barrow & Williams, in June 2010. This morning the two accused men, Akeem Thurton and Ricky Valencia, appeared in the Supreme Court where Thurton’s mother […]
A twenty-two year old Honduran national, Marcos Antonio Moreno, came to Belize on November ninth, 2011 with a visitor’s permit that expired on January sixth. Moreno never left and was living illegally in the country until he was caught on February sixth. This morning, Moreno, who spoke fluent English, represented himself in court as he […]
Estevan Williams, a teenager found guilty of the 2008 manslaughter of Jerson Paguada Hernandez, was today sentenced to ten years in prison. On Friday, a unanimous decision was handed down by a twelve member jury in which Williams was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of the lesser charge for fatally stabbing Hernandez, a […]
A bar room brawl over a woman ended up before the courts and today forty-five year old Shawn Hyde was convicted of Aggravated Assault. The Mahogany Heights resident was charged on July tenth, 2011 after an altercation with Lyndon Murillo. Reports are that the two had an ongoing dispute because Hyde stole Murillo’s girlfriend. So […]
The first case to be tried by a judge, without a jury will be against the two men charged for the Attempted Murder of Attorney Rodwell Williams. The trial was set to begin today and both accused men, Akeem Thurton and Ricky Valencia, appeared before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. But it was brought to the […]
Also in the court, an eighteen year old, who was on trial for the murder of twenty-seven year old Honduran national, Jerson Paguada Hernandez, was convicted of the lesser charge late Friday evening. After only two hours of deliberation, the twelve member jury emerged with a unanimous verdict, finding Estevan Williams not guilty of murder, […]
Human trafficking is a national problem, but most cases go unreported or unsolved due to the secretive nature of the crime. Well tonight, we report on the country’s first conviction on a Human Trafficking related charge. According to release from no less than the Magistrates Court itself, fifty-four year old naturalized Belizean, Narciza Orellana of […]
In news from the courts, former educator and political scientist, Carlos Espat, was brutally murdered at his apartment in September 2010. Espat, who is also the brother of Albert Area Representative, Mark Espat, was found inside his bathroom with injuries to the head and chest. Four months after the incident, Nicaraguan national, Silvio Espinosa, was […]
And while Silvio Espinosa’s trial is being elevated to the Supreme Court, a case against Leonora Stevens was struck out by Magistrate Hettie Mae Stewart today. The Belize City woman was accused of having as many as forty-one rounds of ammunition inside a suitcase at her house, which led to a charge of Kept Ammunition […]
A Belize City businessman of Extra House Store was robbed on Sunday of over one hundred thousand dollars in cash and today two persons, including a minor, were arraigned before Magistrate Hettie Mae Stewart. Lloyd Valentine was charged along with a sixteen year old for Robbery with a Firearm. Bail was automatically denied since the […]
On Tuesday, police were executing a bench warrant for the arrest of Guany Zhao at his Lakeview Street home, but they also took his mother into custody after she tried to prevent police from taking her son. Zhao, who also put up resistance, kept the police out of his house for two hours with chains […]
It’s a situation that many would have preferred to stay inside a closet. But since Caleb Orozco and the United Belize Advocacy Movement opened the doors to challenging old law, controversy of a biblical proportion has emerged. It’s considered the Church’s Holy war but for the homosexual community it’s a legal and human rights battle. […]
A major case of forgery landed three men in court today and it appears that Belmopan police may have busted a fraudulent gun licensing operation. The accused men include thirty-one year police constable, Orlando Antonio Jimenez, a San Ignacio resident. Jimenez appeared solo before Senior Magistrate, Linsbert Willis in the Belmopan Magistrate Court this morning […]
A man accused of stabbing his common-law-wife to death is free tonight after a no-case submission was upheld in the Corozal Supreme Court. Thirty-eight year old James Jackson has been behind bars since the murder of twenty-one year old Elena Espela Amador, in May, 2010. During the trial, Justice Denis Hanomansingh objected to the admissibility […]
Another man was freed of a murder charge today in Belize City Supreme Court. He is twenty-two year old Alexander Underwood, who has been in prison since the June, 2009 murder of twenty-five year old Jonathan Faber. The trial lasted over a week and Prosecutor, Shamilla Williams, called six witnesses; three of whom did not […]
A Fabers Road woman was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court this morning for an alleged burglary at the home of her neighbor. Twenty-four year old Janine Lord appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith and pleaded not guilty to a single charge of burglary. Lord is accused of entering the residence of Camisha […]
A decision was delivered this morning in respect of the ongoing legal battles over the acquisition of Telemedia. Justice Michelle Arana’s court room, was packed with attorneys from both sides in the Telemedia litigation. Via video conferencing from Trinidad, the Caribbean Court of Justice handed down a preliminary decision to appeals brought by Dean Boyce […]
The decision of the CCJ is to stay the appeal until the challenge of the second nationalization and the eighth amendment is determined by the Belize court; that trial is set to begin on March twelfth, 2012. Fortis, the former Canadian owner of the Belize Electricity Limited from whom the government, appropriated the utility company, […]
For a second time, the panel of jurors was discharged from the case of B.D.F. sergeant Emerson Michael. On January fifteenth, it was discovered following testimony that one of the jurors was acquainted with two crown witnesses in the case. The matter was brought to the attention of the judge and the initial panel of […]
There’s dissention in the ranks at the police department. It stems from a raid at the Curassow Street home of thirty-nine year old Police Corporal Gino Peck and his wife Loretta. The couple was busted over the weekend with a significant quantity of ammunition. They were charged with possession of unlicensed ammunition and were due […]
Brian Sears is the American missionary of Somerset Kentucky, who was charged with Committing an Unnatural Act against three brothers in Sarteneja village, Corozal. Up to the time of his arrest, Sears was a member of Victory Christian Fellowship in Somerset. But the police believed he used religion as a ruse to gain the trust […]
A security guard finds himself in prison tonight after being accused of trying to kill Antelope Street resident, twenty-eight year old Ellis Ortiz on Sunday. Thirty-two year old Nathaniel Thomas Junior, also of Antelope Street, was arraigned this morning for Attempted Murder, Dangerous Harm and Use of Deadly Means of Harm. He was unrepresented when […]
In the courts, allegations of a brutal stabbing landed a twenty year old female student behind bars on charges of Attempted Murder, Grievous Harm and Use of Deadly Means of Harm. Janine Kelly was arraigned this morning in the courtroom of Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer, where no pleas were taken on the indictable charges. The […]
