Although they were informed in March that the Court of Appeal was dismissing their appeal, it was not until today that the notorious duo, Leslie Pipersburg and Patrick Robateau were told why. The majority decision of Justices Elliott Motley and Boyd Carey read “We are satisfied that despite the duration of the trial and its […]
A woman who thought her trouble with the law was over, will have to return to court for a new trial. Delita Chavez, who was charged along with her mother for her role in the 2004 chopping of Kimberley Myers, had her abetment to dangerous harm charge dismissed earlier this year by Justice Adolph Lucas. […]
It’s a story that made international headlines: an apparently respectable New York City businesswoman accused of smuggling thousands of Chinese immigrants into the United States, holding them hostage, and laundering the ransom money. Even worse, Cheng Chui Ping was accused of participating in the 1993 ill-fated Golden Venture that left ten Chinese nationals dead in […]
Word from Miami tonight is that the long running legal nightmare called I.C.C. versus Government of Belize is about to end. Both sides in the battle for ownership of B.T.L. summed up their cases before Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages today and this evening Belize’s Attorney in Miami, Barry Davidson, told us that Judge Ungaro has […]
A man originally accused of murder, but convicted only of manslaughter, had his conviction completely overturned yesterday by the Court of Appeal. Benjamin Chulin of Orange Walk was cleared, his nine-year prison sentence wiped out, and he cannot be retried for the death of Reynaldo Roberts in 2003. His attorney, Hubert Elrington, successfully argued that […]
Two cases involving adult men having sex with children fell apart today in the Supreme Court when the teens failed to appear to testify. Defendant Mark Tucker, a police officer of West Street in Belize City, appeared before Justice Adolph Lucas, but the Crown declined to prosecute due to the disappearance of their main witness, […]
Two brothers convicted of chopping and stabbing a police officer have had their convictions overturned on appeal. In April 2002, Herson and Ervin Guerra of San Estevan Village in the Orange Walk District were arrested after they burst into the village police station and attacked P.C. Reynaldo Bruhier. They went to trial in November of […]
While one police officer will be heading to jail, five other defendants charged with murder are about to be set free. Today prosecutor Marjorie Moyston dropped a bombshell on the court of Justice Adolph Lucas when she revealed that the D.P.P.’s office has requested that murder charges be dropped against five people accused in the […]
Belize Water Services received some good news today, courtesy of the Court of Appeal. That body reversed a ruling of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh who on February second issued an interim injunction barring B.W.S. from enforcing a clause in its contract with Government calling for the settlement of disputes by an outside arbitrator. The controversy […]
And in a ruling just issued, the Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction and sentencing of Mark Vega, Omar Vellos, and Luis Urbina. The three had been successfully prosecuted for rape, kidnapping and commission of an unnatural crime stemming from a series of incidents in Corozal and Orange Walk in June of 2002. Their […]
A man who was given twenty years for attacking his spouse with a machete in 2003 had part of his sentence lifted by the Court of Appeal today. Thirty-year-old Kenrick Nunez contended that the sentence handed down by Justice Troadio Gonzalez in October of last year was excessive. Nunez had been given ten years for […]
A former member of the B.D.F. who was convicted of raping a ten-year-old girl, escaping from prison and fleeing to the United States, has appealed his conviction. Jason Flores, who was sentenced to ten years in jail by Justice Simeon Sampson in 2004 appeared before the Court of Appeal today and argued he did not […]
Two Belize City robbers who stole an empty knapsack got some hefty jail time for their trouble today in Belize City Magistrate’s Court. Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord sentenced eighteen-year-old Kirk Anderson of Faber’s Road to six years in prison for robbery and fined him ten thousand dollars for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ten […]
Every week in the newspapers readers will see the names of dozens of Belizeans whose homes or properties are being sold at auction because they have failed to repay their loans to the Development Finance Corporation. But seldom appearing in the D.F.C. hard pay advertisements are the names of so-called “first Belizeans,” those favoured few […]
The Director of Public Prosecutions hasn’t had much luck lately in the Magistrate’s or Supreme Courts… but today in the Court of Appeal it was definitely the D.P.P.’s day. The case involved an incident in July of 2004 when fifty-three year old Mehetebel Slusher intervened in a fight and used a machete to chop a […]
Three men accused of various crimes in a case of piracy at sea have been cleared of all charges after the prosecution decided to throw in the towel. Lincoln “Kilo Boy” Allen, Leonardo Casanova, and Jairu Sedacey walked out of Belize City Magistrate’s Court free men, after charges of attempted murder, grievous harm, use of […]
The Belize Court of Appeal is back in session in what looks to be a busy schedule. The court, which began deliberations today, will hear a total of twelve criminal appeals and six civil cases. Two of the civil appeals involve Belize Telecommunications Limited; one concerning the enforceability of a U.S. District court order and […]
After all the legal hauling and pulling, today in the courtroom of U.S. Federal Judge Ursula Ungaro-Benages the case of Innovative Communications Corporation versus the Government of Belize finally got underway in Miami, Florida. Viewers will recall that Judge Ungaro has already dismissed charges of fraud, rescission of the share pledge agreement, and the payment […]
This week a notorious bad man was sentenced to five years in jail for an attempted robbery gone really wrong last October. On Monday, twenty-seven year old Wayne Castillo told the court that on October twenty-second 2004, he walked into the Maya Tortilla Factory located at the corner of West Canal and Water Lane. He […]
And if you think the attempted robbery was strange, listen to this item. Eight defendants, jointly accused of drug trafficking, were acquitted today in the court of Magistrate Dorothy Flowers due to weak evidence. It seems that on November ninth a police patrol visited a yard on “T” Street in Port Loyola where the group […]
The drama over the D.F.C. Commission of Inquiry has apparently ended… not with a bang but with a whimper. Today in the Court of Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh the D.F.C., through its attorney Michel Chebat, dropped its case against the Commission and agreed to comply with the summons issued to D.F.C. Chief Troy Gabb, who […]
George Herbert, the Belizean drug runner who was convicted late last year in a New York court, received his sentence on Friday: thirty-three years and four months. The sentencing of the thirty-one year old Herbert brings to a close one of the most successful U.S. prosecutions of foreign narco-traffickers. In addition to Herbert, the court […]
A man who mistakenly thought the owner of a Belize City laundromat was an easy target for robbery was given six years in jail by Magistrate Margaret Gabb on Thursday. The incident in question dates back to November thirtieth, 2004, when Shane Fuller was working at a laundromat on “C” Street in Kings Park. His […]
In the Supreme Court today charges were withdrawn against Kyra Plunkett, accused of causing the death of a four-year-old child in 2002. The D.P.P.’s office declined to prosecute because the family of little Honey Flowers left for the United States just months after the incident and has expressed no desire to press the case. Plunkett […]
In another case today, this time in Magistrate’s Court, a man facing a charge that he stole a bag of corn chips from a primary school was remanded to prison to await trial. Thirty-seven year old John Hernandez was charged with burglary after he stuck his hand into the Grace Primary School window on Wednesday […]
