Also appearing in court today was twenty-six-year-old Sydney Bucknor Junior, who is charged with the murder of his uncle, sixty-one-year-old Michael Bucknor. Sydney gave the police a caution statement in which he confessed to the 2016 murder. That statement was admitted into evidence after a voir dire, which is a trial within a trial, found […]
Kevin Jex was back in court today for a mitigation hearing. He was originally accused of the murder of Desmond Miller but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter on July 16, 2019. The court heard from two character witnesses, including his sister, Jenisse Ramirez today. Ramirez told the court that her brother, Jex, […]
A murder trial without jury is taking place in the Supreme Court. The accused is Valentine Baptist, who allegedly murdered nineteen-year-old Devin Parham three years ago. Today, Senior Crown Counsel Shanice Lovell called the arresting officer to the stand. He recounted the circumstances leading to the arrest of Baptist. Two statements were also read into […]
One of the issues haunting City Hall is the huge payment ordered by the Supreme Court to former City Administrator Candice Miller. As you know, the court awarded Miller a package of some four hundred thousand dollars after she sued the council for wrongful termination. Soon after the court’s decision, Miller proceeded to crow foot […]
A former inmate is claiming that he was raped while serving time at the prison and is seeking compensation. The alleged victim is seeking aggravated and exemplary damages, for the harm, unnatural crime and personal injuries caused to him by a prisoner. The former inmate claimed that he was raped by another prisoner on November […]
Justice Colin Williams is expected to hand down a decision on December eighteenth 2019 in the case of twenty-one-year-old Mark Waight, who was charged with the attempted murder of Jamelia Neal. In trial today, Waight called two witnesses, including his sister, Desiree Waight, who told the court that she was with him at the time […]
The sensational trial of William “Danny’’ Mason and four other accused men concluded today in the Belmopan Supreme Court. As the nation waited with bated breath, the verdict from Justice Antoinette Moore was guilty, all five of them, on the grounds that the evidence presented by the prosecution, led by D.P.P. Cheryl-Lynn Vidal, was irrefutable. […]
William “Danny” Mason and the four other convicted men exited the courtroom and entered a police vehicle parked immediately in front of the court. Police were on hand to avert any eventuality. The five headed back to prison to await sentencing for the murder conviction. The reaction from the family of the deceased pastor was […]
While the courtroom of Justice Antoinette Moore was at its capacity, outside near the parking lot, a handful of politicians and supporters of the People’s United Party gathered in protest. The area representatives and standard bearers were there to clamour for justice in the murder of Pastor Lucas, as well as other victims whose murders […]
Following the verdict by Justice Moore, the Minister of National Security, John Saldivar, issued a rare statement. During the trial, a US federal agent who was stationed at the US embassy at the time of the murder, was contacted by Mason who said that he was being framed by Saldivar. That testimony was presented to […]
In the Magistrate court in Belize City, Devon Nicholas was sentenced to two years behind bars after he was found guilty of firearm offences. Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford found him guilty on two charges: “kept firearm without a gun license and kept ammunition without a gun license.” During the trial, two police officers testified that […]
The local trial of the century comes to close on Tuesday when Justice Antoinette Moore will be handing down a decision. The highly connected William “Danny” Mason and four accused men are charged with the beheading of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas and after five weeks of submissions earlier this year, they will learn their fate on […]
An application for judicial review has been filed by attorney Arthur Saldivar on behalf of the Belize Peace Movement and Vision Inspired by the People. Both organizations are challenging the Government of Belize in respect of the thirty-one political constituencies and the fact that they are disproportionate in terms of the numbers of registered voters. […]
With general elections a little less than a year away, the challenge, should the claimants be successful, can prompt a countrywide realignment of all constituencies ahead of that exercise. Arthur Saldivar, Attorney, Belize Peace Movement “It’s not a matter of an outcome favourable to them, it’s an outcome favourable to Belize, the country as […]
Water taxis usually run to and from the mainland to the cayes without any incident. However, on May fifth, 2019, there was an explosion on board a water taxi, which was preparing to leave from Ocean Ferry located near the Swing Bridge in Belize City with passengers. The explosion left two minors dead and several […]
Turning to the courts…Chief Magistrate Sharon Fraser committed Salvadoran national Efrain Martinez to stand trial for the January 2019 murder of Guatemalan national Elmer Salazar. The fifty-four-year-old former employee of Belize Marine and Mooring Services will appear in the January 2020 session of the Supreme Court. After a preliminary inquiry, Chief Magistrate Fraser determined that […]
Glenford Diego is spending his first night on remand at the Belize Central Prison after he appeared before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford for a robbery charge. He is accused of robbing Dollar Grocery Store on Water Lane in Belize City. He pleaded not guilty to the charge and was remanded to the Kolbe Foundation until […]
The execution style murder of prominent businessman Zheng Liu continues to rock the Chinese community and the thousands who knew and liked one of the owners of the Eighty Eight Group of Companies on Central American Boulevard. Liu was called by cell phone on Friday night by an associate; he left the store and headed […]
Collin Francis, believed to be suffering from mental illness, has been charged with the murder of Nestor Vasquez Junior in June of this year. Francis spent the weekend in the same cell where the deadly beating of Vasquez took place. He was being detained for the attempted murder of a nurse who was treating him […]
There is another murder acquittal in the courts. Twenty-three-year-old Frank Alexander Young of Lords Bank village, who was charged with the murder of nineteen-year-old David Andrews, is tonight a free man. Young was tried by Justice Colin Williams. The main witnesses was WPC Hyde who claimed that on the night of December twenty-third, 2016, she […]
Jose Rodriguez luckily spared jail time when he appeared before Justice Colin Williams this morning for sentencing. Last Wednesday, Rodriguez pleaded guilty to “Causing Death by Careless Conduct” in the fatal traffic accident, which claimed the life of eleven-year-old Tezzrah Thompson. Initially, Rodriguez was charged with “Manslaughter by Negligence,” but pleaded guilty to the lesser […]
There is relief for the family of two sisters who perished in an accident. The court has ordered fifty-four-old Carlos Martinez to pay in excess of thirty-one thousand dollars to the family of sixteen-year-old Liarinette and twenty-six-year-old Cindy Cowo. On October sixth 2018, the two sisters were in the company of Martinez when he lost […]
In an unprecedented move, Director of Public Prosecutions Cheryl-Lyn Vidal, in her capacity as president of the Bar Association, has lodged a claim against Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin, following her removal as a member of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission. On October twenty-second, attorney Andrew Marshalleck filed a claim on Vidal’s behalf in which […]
Recent appointments, according to Marshalleck, have seen an obvious increase in the number of judicial officers from the Caribbean taking up posts in Belize. This, he says, is deliberate. But with a claim against the presiding judge of the Supreme Court languishing within the system, who will the case be assigned to and how does […]
Back in November of 2016, a young girl shot on Racoon Street Extension, Belize City. Police soon picked up Anthony Crawford and charged him with “use of deadly means of harm with intent to cause grievous harm.” At the time of the incident, the girl was only thirteen years old; fortunately, the bullet grazed her […]
