The boardrooms that control the citrus industry are often in the courts. This afternoon Justice Minnet Hafiz-Bertram granted three declarations in favor of C.E.O. of the Citrus Products of Belize Limited (CPBL), Dr. Henry Canton. Canton sought to clarify that his 2002 employment contract was valid and entitled him to continue as C.E.O. and as […]
Belize City resident, Steven Polonio was today committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court for the Attempted Murder of Harry Joseph. Chief Magistrate, Ann Marie Smith made the ruling shortly before midday after Polonio, who was unrepresented at his preliminary inquiry, did not challenge the evidence presented against him. The prosecution is relying on […]
Two of three men accused of the January fifth 2009 murder of ex-police officer, Josiah Thompson, were freed of the charges. Thompson was shot and killed during a robbery outside the Belize Bank. This evening, a jury of twelve persons who had stepped into the deliberating room at twenty minutes after one this afternoon, emerged […]
Twenty-five year old Wesley Emmanuel has been tried twice for the June 2008 murder of Emigdio Gomez and he will now go through a third trial. A jury of twelve persons deliberated until seven-thirty-five p.m. on Friday night and could not come to a decision. The hung jury resulted in a retrial being ordered by […]
Leon Hinds was stabbed on the neck, chest and right lung near 88 Shopping Center on Central American Boulevard on October twenty-sixth. That night, his attacker left him to die, but Hinds has survived the incident and is now slowly recovering. He was in court today for the arraignment of the alleged attacker, Meshack Dwayne […]
There was a major spectacle on North Front Street on Thursday afternoon as a female cruise visitor was roughed up by policemen. But today, it was forty-one year old US National, Christal Poyner, facing a Magistrate in court. Reports are that Poyner was spotted by police with a stick of weed and she quickly swallowed […]
On Thursday, police searches netted over forty-five pounds of marijuana and today the accused traffickers appeared in court. The biggest bust was at around eleven thirty a.m. at the home of forty-three year old Garfield Flowers on Johnson Street. There, the cops found thirty-eight and a half pounds of weed separated into eighteen packages. Flowers […]
Universal Health Services was the private hospital whose debt was guaranteed by the government to the Belize Bank. In 2007, it caused protests in the capital. The bank was owed thirty million dollars and when it was time to pay up, the hospital did not have the cash, and it became a government debt and […]
Two Belize City teenagers were today committed by Chief Magistrate, Ann Marie Smith to stand trial at the Supreme Court. The first was eighteen year old Kevin Bodden, who is accused of the April tenth murder of taxi-driver, Kirk Belisle. A preliminary inquiry concluded with a paper committal when the Chief Magistrate ruled that there […]
Meanwhile, a land dispute was settled amicably in the Supreme Court this morning before Justice Michelle Arana. Stacey Ortiz and her mother, Linda Hinds took a fellow city resident, Ricardo Castillo, to court over a piece of land they have been occupying on North Front Street. Castillo, who is the owner of the parcel adjacent […]
Police swarmed the home of James “Raindrops” Swan early on the morning of April eighteenth and after a five-hour search, he was arrested along with his daughter, Kristie, his son James Junior and his girlfriend, Camille Rodriguez. Firearm and drug charges against Swan Senior were dismissed in September while his son was freed because Rodriguez […]
A Belize City man is spending his first of many nights in a prison cell after he was today sentenced to a year and a half behind bars for a brutal attack on his female roommate. Jesus Ayuso appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith and pleaded guilty to a charge of Wounding. The victim […]
Cruz Anthony Allen, a Belize City resident, was recently granted bail for burglary. And almost like dejavu, Allen was back in court on a similar charge today. Chief Magistrate, Ann Marie Smith told Allen that because he has several previous convictions for crimes of dishonesty and other burglary charges pending before the court, she will […]
Belizean, Ian Alamilla, who is living in Westmont, Chicago turned himself in six days after he strangled his estranged wife, Tara, in April 2010. Over a year later, Alamilla pleaded guilty on Thursday to the charge of Murder. In exchange for his guilty plea, Alamilla will be sentenced to no more than fifty years in […]
The court dealt a heavy blow to British Tourist, twenty-seven year old Paul Smith, a resident of New Castle, England. Smith was charged with a single count of drug trafficking this morning in the court of Magistrate Albert Hoare. He pleaded not guilty to drug trafficking, but guilty to the lesser charge of possession of […]
Before the battle over the amendment to the constitution, there was always debate on private property and property rights. On January twelfth, 2010, a Benque Viejo Del Carmen resident was watching television when he heard Minister of Economic Development, Erwin Contreras say that his property would be acquired and given to the Mount Carmel High […]
The man at the center of the land case, Sam Bruce, says it was a surreal experience because he had done charity and community based work for the past two decades in Benque Viejo. He says he couldn’t believe that a hard working taxpayer, who used his own capital to develop his land for community […]
A GSU raid at a residence on Nurse White Street in Belize City earlier today has resulted in charges being brought against four people, including three women. At about three o’clock this afternoon GSU personnel executed a search warrant on the property of Deon Wright where they discovered six kilograms, the equivalent of thirteen point […]
Twenty-seven year old Lionel Waight, a boat driver of Fredrick Street was arraigned before the Chief Magistrate, Anna Marie Smith for aggravated assault of an indecent nature upon a thirteen year old boy from Belize City. He pleaded not guilty and Prosecutor, Sergeant Egbert Castillo objected to bail on the grounds Waight would interfere with […]
There’s another murder suspect behind bars tonight. On the night of October fourth, a well-known grocer was gunned down at his store on the Old Maskall Road in the Sandhill area. Ernesto Myvette’s body was found behind the counter and his licensed firearm was missing. It is believed the murder was motivated by robbery. This […]
For having two wives, a police officer is facing up to seven years in prison. The interdicted cop, Luciano Jaime Pena, was today found guilty of Bigamy, which is a rare conviction in Belize. Ruby Pena, who was married to Luciano since February 1998, filed the report against him when she found out that just […]
A cruise ship passenger who was in the jewel on a one day visit had a brush with the law after he was busted with weed on Tuesday. When he was arraigned this morning, the forty-nine year US national Douglas Magnuson, a trucker of Wisconsin admitted that it was a really stupid and silly thing […]
The two big stories for today have to do with the ninth amendment, which is now in effect and Hurricane Rina. We’ll have the latest on the hurricane that is moving slowly but closer to Belize, but the ninth amendment to the constitution, which is really the eighth, is now law. Ninety-four days after it […]
Senior Counsel Godfrey Smith, who along with Queen’s Counsel Lord Peter Goldsmith represented Vaughan Gill and Ricardo Castillo, told the media that legal challenge of the passage of the Ninth Amendment has been exhausted. However, if Gill and Castillo wish to proceed with litigation at the Supreme Court level then GOB will have to answer […]
Thirty-nine year old Albert Talbert who also goes by the name of Cat was busted with a B.D.F. uniform last Wednesday when police raided his apartment on Maskall Street. Talbert claimed that he paid a BDF soldier fifty dollars for the uniform. This morning Talbert was taken to court and arraigned for a single charge […]
