It may not have blossomed into a major public controversy, but to the business people who have invested millions at the mouth of the Haulover Creek, the issue of the wall could not be bigger. Today the Supreme Court made its ruling in the civil suit, saying the obstructions must go. News Five’s Janelle Chanona […]
A former police constable who was serving ten years for manslaughter is out on bail tonight after the Court of Appeal ordered he be retried for the crime. Burton Caliz was convicted of manslaughter for the February 2004 shooting death of Leroy “Dan” Pilgrim in San Pedro Town. But according to the judges in the […]
He was stopped for a relatively minor traffic offence but an attempt to bribe the arresting officer has cost a Corozal man an extra thousand dollars. Forty-two year old Mark Daniels of G Street in that northern town tried to pay off Corporal Ignatius Nicholas on Friday night after he and a female companion were […]
The Chalillo dam was designed to produce electricity but the project has been a consistent source of legal controversy. In the latest case, a citizens group based in the Cayo district is asking the Chief Justice of Belize to order the Department of Environment to enforce the law. According to the members of the Belize […]
Even by today’s violent standards the four murders occurring on the night of June eighteenth 2002 remain one of the most wanton slaughters in Belize’s history. Two men, Leslie Pipersburgh and Patrick Robateau were detained in Mexico, returned to Belize, and found guilty of the crimes in 2004. A year later, those convictions were upheld […]
A Belize City man accused of burglary was convicted in Magistrate’s Court today but his sentence was an exercise in leniency. When nineteen year old Sheffield Ysaguirre appeared before Magistrate Sharon Fraser he pleaded guilty to breaking into Prosser Fertilizer’s North Front Street office and to handling goods stolen from Juanita’s and Caribbean Treasures. But […]
The former Ombudsman’s assistant, Lionel Castillo, will have to stand trial in the Supreme Court on the seldom heard of charge of Agreement for Influencing an Officer. This afternoon Senior Magistrate Dorothy Flowers ruled in the preliminary inquiry that the evidence presented by the prosecution is sufficient to justify a trial. This morning in court, […]
Two brothers have pleaded guilty to Handling Stolen Goods following the start of their trial on the more serious charge of Burglary. Thirty-six year old Wilwood Pinto and thirty-two year old Brian Pinto made their plea bargain decision after eight witnesses had testified for the prosecution. The crime in question involved a September 2006 break-in […]
In November of 2006, seventeen year old Norman Mckenzie was charged with the attempted murder of his brother-in-law, Simon Castillo. On January twenty-first of this year he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of Use of Deadly Means of Harm. But McKenzie changed his mind last Friday before Justice Troadio Gonzalez and said he shot […]
A Belize City husband who stabbed his wife and her twelve year old son has been sentenced to spend the next eight years behind bars. According to court reports, when thirty-two year Alfred Billary appeared before Justice Troadio Gonzalez this morning he told the court that he had no character witnesses to call and would […]
Meanwhile another man accused of Attempted Murder was free to leave the court today after the victim asked for the charge to be dropped. According to twenty-eight year old Elton Gordon, he hasn’t been threatened but he is afraid that something will happen to him if he testifies. On April thirteenth, Gordon was walking on […]
An accused child molester today walked out of the Supreme Court a free man. Thirty year old Mark Anthony Copius was charged with carnal knowledge of a child in 2006 after a child reported that two years earlier, when she was seven years old, Copius engaged in sex with her. The girl, who testified in […]
Almost two years ago, thirty-four year old Erna Bethran and her twelve year old son spent two days in the hospital after they were violently attacked by her common-law husband, Alfred Billary. Today they are one day closer to getting justice as this afternoon Billary pled guilty to Grievous Harm against the boy and Use […]
Two men accused of murder were free to leave the court today after the Director of Prosecutions withdrew the charges against them. In the first case, eighteen year old Kenroy Humes had been charged with killing twenty nine year old Gilbert Phillips, which occurred almost two years ago. But Crown Counsel Douglas Carr was forced […]
He was originally charged with extortion and today a second charge was laid against thirty-three year old Lionel Castillo. Castillo, who is the former Investigator in the Office of the Ombudsman, appeared in Magistrates’ Court on a charge of Agreement for Influencing an Officer. The allegation is that on June seventeenth, 2007, Castillo accepted five […]
The accident occurred almost a year ago, but that did not stop police from slapping a driver with some serious charges. Today thirty-one year old David Vasquez appeared in Magistrates’ Court where he was arraigned for Manslaughter by Negligence, Causing Death by Careless Conduct, Driving Without Due Care and Attention, Negligent Harm, Driving an Unlicensed […]
Today a man well known to police was finally put behind bars after he was found guilty of two counts of burglary. What’s significant about this case was that twenty-nine year old Kenrick Reneau has come before the courts countless times—as many as sixty, say police—but has always managed to somehow get off. Today his […]
A man sentenced to two years in prison for burglary, has been given an extra year behind bars for lying to the magistrate about his name. When appearing before Magistrate Roberto Ordonez this morning the defendant, who stole two crates of empty pints and was apprehended by their owner, gave his name as Chester Miller. […]
Fifty-five year old bicycle cart delivery man, Arthur Arnold, who last Thursday pleaded guilty to Manslaughter and Use of Deadly Means of Harm with Intent to Commit Dangerous Harm, was sentenced today to fifteen years for the first offence and two years for the second by Justice Adolph Lucas. The sentences will run concurrently. Before […]
Three high profile cases were heard today in the Supreme Court. Convicted murderer Louis “Louie Ganzie” Gentle was sentenced to life imprisonment by Justice Troadio Gonzalez. Earlier this month, the thirty year old was found guilty of killing the mother of two of his children, Takeisha Sutherland. On January third, Sutherland was stabbed twenty-one times […]
Fifty-five year old Arthur Arnold, a cart delivery man charged with Murder and Attempted Murder, pleaded guilty to Manslaughter and Use of Deadly Means of Harm with intent to Commit Dangerous Harm when he appeared today in the courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas. Sentencing was deferred until Thursday to give Arnold’s attorney, Linsbert Willis, time […]
In court news, a Belize City man has been sentenced to five years in prison for a robbery that occurred in June. Thirty-five year old Michael “Dippy” Woods was given the punishment this morning following his conviction in the courtroom of Magistrate Albert Hoare. His victim, twenty-five year old Ephani Bacab, testified in court that […]
Reyna Zetina, a forty-one year old Mexican residing in Corozal who allegedly obtained over seventy thousand dollars by claiming she was a psychic healer, was fined a total of twenty-two thousand dollars yesterday after she pled guilty to ten of twenty-four counts of Obtaining Property by Deception. Justice Herbert Lord, who imposed the fines in […]
It’s become a common phrase in the courtroom but today “nolle prosequi” broke the heart of a Belize City mother as the men accused of her son’s murder walked out of court free men. Twenty-six year old Callum Sutherland and twenty-three year old Alfred Conorquie were arrested in November 2006 and charged with murder following […]
A twenty thousand-dollar Rolex watch that was stolen during a break-in more than a month ago has turned up in a pawn shop. According to court reports, on Thursday, twenty-eight year-old taxi driver, Derrick Cervantes took the watch to Monica’s Jewellery located in the Commercial Centre and sold it to manager, Gilroy Usher, Jr., for […]
