It was the first in a long line of major scandals attributed to the government of Prime Minister Said Musa, but events in the Supreme Court today suggest that justice will be a long time coming in the case of the forgery and sale of Belizean passports. For the fourth time, witnesses were assembled in […]
Two teenagers have been sentenced to a year in prison for their role in a 2005 chopping incident. Nineteen year old Leonard Gillett Junior and fifteen year old Darren Jones, both of Hattieville, were today found guilty of grievous harm in the courtroom of Magistrate Harrison Hulett. The charges arose out of an incident in […]
A Belize City shopkeeper accused of raping a twelve year old girl has been found not guilty by a jury of his peers in the Supreme Court. According to the testimony of the victim, in the months of January to March of 2004, seventy-six year old Tereso Hernandez had sex with her in his store, […]
Two years ago, he made headlines after he was arrested for scamming over two hundred thousand dollars from the K.H.M.H., but tonight Romanian Robertino Oprescu is out on bail. According to court reports, Oprescu was initially granted bail late last year, but did not meet the conditions until this week … conditions which include a […]
A Belize City fisherman accused of viciously beating another man for his bicycle has been given jail time. Twenty-five year old Eric Martinez was sentenced to a total of six years in prison: five years for robbery and another year for grievous harm. On May tenth, 2005, the victim, Daniel Brooks, reported to police that […]
Two men have been found guilty of burglary and sentenced to seven years each in jail. Eighteen year old Shane Bahadur and twenty-one year old Bruce Reneau received their jail time today from Magistrate Sharon Fraser. The crime occurred on the morning of September twenty-seventh, 2004, in Lord’s Bank Village. The duo, having entered the […]
For more than a decade she suffered severe mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, but tonight, justice has been handed down in the Lorna Wade case. This afternoon the accused, forty-five year old Elston Young, appeared before Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh where he was formally arraigned for a second time on […]
In the Supreme Court today, a naked intruder was convicted and sentenced to spend the next ten years behind bars. It took the jury less than forty-five minutes to convict thirty-one year old Steven Castillo of aggravated burglary, attempted rape, and harm. Chief Justice Conteh told the defendant: “You are found guilty of a serious […]
A Belize City man who admitted to lying to police this week has been convicted and charged for the offence. According to court reports, this morning forty-five year old George Grant appeared before Magistrate Roberto Ordonez where he was formally arraigned on the charge of false statement declaration. The matter is considered a hybrid offence, […]
A twenty-five year old Belize City fisherman has been convicted of robbery and grievous harm. Eric Martinez was found guilty this evening by Magistrate Margaret McKenzie and will be sentenced on January twenty-fifth following some clarification of his identity. On May tenth of last year Martinez accosted Daniel Brooks as he left a food stand […]
Two men appeared in court today, on trial for a burglary committed last March. But it was a witness in the case who tonight finds himself behind bars. George Grant was called to the stand to testify against two men–Philip Peyrefitte and Enrique Soberanis–accused of breaking into Juanita’s on Albert Street. Grant, a watchman working […]
It was a killing of remarkable savagery, but instead of dangling at the end of a rope, the man who strangled his girlfriend to death will spend the next fifteen years in jail. Eliezer Dominguez was sentenced today after copping a plea in the court of Justice Michelle Arana under which he pled guilty to […]
In other court news, twenty-four year old Honduran Lauriano Ramirez was sentenced to twelve years in prison for rape and another ten for aggravated burglary. On February twenty-sixth, 2004 Ramirez attacked his ex-girlfriend in her home. After raping her, he stabbed her a number of times with an ice pick. Ramirez’s sentences will run concurrently, […]
The sentencing had been delayed twice, but tonight the fate of Clifford and Russel Hyde is now settled. The brothers will spend the next twelve years in Hattieville prison. That’s the sentence handed down today by Supreme Court Justice Troadio Gonzalez following their conviction for manslaughter. The men had originally been charged with murder, along […]
Hardly a week goes by that we don’t report on criminal charges being filed as the result of a traffic fatality. Rarely, however, do we hear that prosecutions are successful. But today, a young woman was convicted in a case over three years old. Twenty-two year old Fabiola Mendez was fined three thousand dollars, or […]
A Belize City man has been sentenced to six years in jail after the long arm of the law plucked him from beneath his victim’s bed. Kent Myvette of Faber’s Road appeared before Magistrate Dorothy Flowers this afternoon where he pled guilty to burglary. The charge arose out of an incident on Sunday in which […]
There is news to report in the immigration scandal tonight as latest reports from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions indicate that on Tuesday, a formal request will be made to Justice Adolph Lucas to proceed with the case against fifty-three year old Hassan El-Sayed, in absentia. El-Sayed is accused of facilitating the […]
A Belize City mechanic has been sentenced to five years behind bars after his client’s car was found stripped of everything from headlights to wheels. According to court reports, in February 2005 Herbert Wiltshire agreed to do repairs on a vehicle belonging to Ethel Arnold and drove the car to his home slash shop on […]
A burglar has been sentenced to five years behind bars following court proceedings today in San Pedro. According to reports, at a “Quick Trial” this morning witnesses positively identified Arthur Garbutt as the man who broke into the home of Luis Velasquez in the San Pedrito area of the island town. The victim told police […]
The January sitting of the Supreme Court is expected to be another record setting session, with more than fifty cases already in the dock and more still anticipated to be accepted for trial. According to court officials, there are twelve murders, seven attempted murders, three rapes, six incidents of carnal knowledge, two attempted rapes, one […]
Meanwhile, two men convicted of manslaughter will have to wait a little bit longer to learn their fate. Clifford and Russel Hyde, convicted on December twenty-first in connection with the June 2004 killing of Allison Castillo, appeared for sentencing in the courtroom of Justice Troadio Gonzalez this morning, but attorney Ellis Arnold asked the judge […]
When a man accused of theft, wounding, and aggravated assault failed to appear in Magistrate Court earlier this week, Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord ordered that the two people who stood bail for Shandon Richard Avila be arrested. He further insisted that Gary Tasher and Amanda Bermudez bring their surety payments of two thousand dollars with […]
In the Supreme Court today, a former police officer appeared for sentencing following a manslaughter by negligence conviction in Belmopan last month. Cardinal Smith appeared before Justice Michelle Arana and apologised to the family of the victim of the 2004 traffic accident which claimed the life of Jamil Torres Shepherd. As it turns out, Shepherd?s […]
Tonight four men have been cleared of murder charges, but two others stand convicted of manslaughter in the Supreme Court. The jury deliberated for four hours and acquitted Clifford Hyde, Russel Hyde, Dennis Hyde, and Delvin Galvez of murder charges, but found Clifford and Russel Hyde guilty of manslaughter in the death of Allison Castillo […]
A convicted child molester will spend the next seven years in prison for a previous sentence that slipped through the cracks at the Magistrate’s Court. According to court reports, this morning Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord held a special hearing into the matter of Godfrey Coote. Earlier this month, Coote was fined twenty-five hundred dollars after […]
