This morning a crowd gathered at Belize City’s Magistrate Court as an accused drug dealer prepared to defend himself against extradition to the United States. Family and friends of thirty-seven year old Mark Seawell held up placards to show their support for their loved one and called for his release. Appearing on behalf of the […]
A convicted murderer has been sentenced to life behind bars for the crime. In the courtroom of Justice Troadio Gonzalez, Edward Barahona stood with his attorney Lionel Welch to hear his fate. Welch was the only person present at the time to beg the judge to be lenient, telling the court that his client was […]
Fifteen months ago, the heartless murder of Belize City businessman Michael Burns in front of his nine year old son rocked the old capital. In the aftermath of the crime, public outcry demanded justice and police worked quickly to arrest two young men: eighteen year old Keith Lewis and seventeen year old Kareem Gladden. As […]
Almost two years after he was accused of the crime, this afternoon a Belize City man was convicted of murder. Around four this afternoon a jury of five men and seven women declared twenty-one year old Michael Fox guilty of the June ninth, 2005 shooting death of Sydney Bradley. Justice Adolph Lucas has set Monday, […]
After two separate adjournments this morning, the case of the Novelo brothers versus the Commission of Inquiry investigating the Development Finance Corporation finally got underway this afternoon. But the drama that followed could hardly have been anticipated. The bottom line tonight is that the Novelos’ application has been dismissed and they have been ordered to […]
There is also news from the Magistrate’s Court that a man who pled guilty to shooting at another man has been fined and released. According to twenty one year old Darwin Rocke, he was in his yard on Monday night feeding his dogs. At some point he looked up only to see two armed men […]
In the Supreme Court today Edward Barona was found guilty of murder. The jury took less than four hours to reach its verdict. Barona was charged with the killing of David Vasquez in June 2005. Sentencing in the court of Justice Troadio Gonzalez, is set for February twenty-third.
The case against twenty-three year old Alex Palacio ended today in the Supreme Court with a sentence of sixteen years behind bars. On January thirtieth, Palacio, charged with the murder of twenty-one year old Wasani Belgrave, opted to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter. At two-thirty this afternoon, Justice Troadio Gonzalez began hearing […]
Last June, the public responded in outrage following a report by a nine year old child that she had been sexually assaulted by a neighbour and his wife. Thirty-three year old Wilfred Gillett was charged with six counts of rape and six counts of carnal knowledge, while his common-law wife, thirty-four year old Beverly Simpson, […]
A police raid on Kut Avenue this morning resulted in the detention of nine people, five of them children. According to court reports, around ten today officers from the Criminal Investigation Unit visited the home of Ana Edwards and discovered nine live rounds of point thirty-eight calibre ammunition in one of the bedrooms. As is […]
It was a good day for attorney Lois Young Barrow as Chief Magistrate Abdulai Conteh awarded her thirty thousand dollars in damages against The Belize Times and its editor Andrew Steinhauer. In addition to the libel compensation, The Times was also ordered to pay ten thousand dollars in attorney’s fees.
If you think a summons to jury duty is something to ignore you better think again … at least if the judge in question is Supreme Court Justice Adolf Lucas. Today Lucas not only fined an absent prospective juror but also ordered her boss to appear. On Monday when Doris Mencias failed to show up […]
The passport scandal: it was big news back in 2002 when it was shown that hundreds, perhaps over a thousand Belize passports had been illegally sold on the global market by unscrupulous private sector agents in collusion with even more unscrupulous public officers and politicians. And while former immigration minister Max Samuels lost his seat […]
A man accused of murder has pled guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. According to court reports, shortly after a jury was empanelled to hear the case against Alexander Palacio, attorney for the accused, Hubert Elrington informed prosecutor Tracy Sosa that the defence would plead guilty to manslaughter. Sosa accepted the plea and Justice […]
In the Supreme Court this afternoon police constable Burton Caliz was found guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of Leroy Pilgrim. The killing took place at San Pedro in February of 2004 when Caliz was in the process of making an arrest. The eight person jury deliberated for less than four hours before reaching […]
Two U.S. tourists, caught hiding cocaine in hard to find places, today pled guilty to drug trafficking. Brothers Andrew and Joshua Shumate, age twenty-three and twenty-six respectively, appeared before Magistrate Sharon Fraser this morning with lawyer Lionel Welch. Welch pointed out that the young men had no prior police record and asked the magistrate to […]
It was a matter that the D.F.C. commission of inquiry hit upon during the public hearings: the quandary facing owners who bought land in the Mahogany Heights housing development but never received their titles. The story dates back to 1994 when Abdul Hamze bought the future village site of over seven thousand acres of land […]
Lois Young versus Andrew Steinhower and the Belize Times. It’s a case that has ramifications for the way both journalism and politics are practiced in Belize. Today arguments in that lawsuit for libel ended in the Supreme Court, with Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh reserving judgement for a future date. Young, herself an attorney, alleged through […]
A Belize City man has been charged with a string of robberies that have left five people poorer, and one of them with stab wounds. Twenty-two year old Jarret Crawford, a resident of Raccoon Street, appeared today before Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb where the five Robbery and one Wounding counts were read. The four separate […]
Two minors charged with a high profile 2005 murder have had their case sent down to Magistrate’s Court where a coroner’s inquest will determine if they will stand trial. The boys, at the time only thirteen years old, are accused of killing four year old Oscar Velasquez and hiding his body in an old refrigerator […]
In another case sent from the Supreme Court for a coroner’s inquest, a mother whose year old son dropped off her bike to his death will have her charges reviewed. Twenty year old Vicenta Cuxun was charged with Manslaughter by Negligence and Causing Death by Careless Conduct in March of 2005. The charges arose out […]
Meanwhile in Belize City, a woman who found herself in the middle of a domestic disturbance was unharmed, but the same could not be said for the police officer who came to her aid. On Sunday, a police patrol responded to a call from Diana Trujeque that her common-law husband, Lincoln Green, was intoxicated and […]
A Belize City businessman who shot a would be burglar to death over a year ago has failed to show up in court. Thirty-nine year old Ben Bou-Nahra had been charged with manslaughter in the September seventeenth, 2005 killing of Shawn Copius at Bou-Nahra’s Belize City home. Today that charge was supposed to be upped […]
In 2005, his murder trial ended in a deadlock and the D.P.P. vowed to re-file the charges … but tonight it looks like Mark Vega will not face a return bout in court; his paperwork, it seems, has gone missing. According to court reports, Vega was supposed to be arraigned today for the 2002 murder […]
In 2005, Moses Sulph became a household name as the militant student activist from the University of Belize. But Sulph’s reputation came under fire in April of that year when police arrested him on charges of organising and taking part in a procession without a permit, trespassing on the compounds of Pallotti and Saint John’s […]
