Ladyville resident, twenty-three-year-old Jesse Mejia, on Thursday pleaded guilty to unlicensed firearm and ammunition charges in the courtroom of Magistrate Emerson Banner. Mejia was fined three thousand dollars and ordered to pay by February twenty-eighth. If he does not, he will be facing a three-year sentence behind bars. The offences date back to July third, […]
Bail was denied for fifty-nine-year-old San Pedro taxi driver Noel Wiltshire. Having been charged for attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and grievous harm, Wiltshire appeared today before Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Williams. He is accused of trying to run over his e-common-law-wife with a van in late September. Attorney, Leslie Hamilton, brought […]
There is a boom in tourism numbers, but the growth is causing unexpected challenges at the main point of entry. The number of visitors arriving by commercial flights has outgrown the space at the Philip Goldson International Airport, causing huge delays in their processing. In anticipation of this weekend’s arrivals, the Immigration Department has taken […]
Belize Bank’s Attorney, Senior Counsel Eamon Courtenay today warned the Government that the ‘heavens will fall’ if it does not honour the multimillion-dollar UHS debt which goes back to 2004. Day-two of the case on the UHS debt concluded this evening in the courtroom of Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. The Belize Bank Limited has been […]
The original 2004 UHS loan agreement was for thirty-three point five million dollars, but more than a decade after, the debt is believed to have ballooned to over one hundred million dollars, more than seventy percent of it being pure interest cost. As you heard, the government has rejected Belize Bank’s offer to settle the […]
Businessmen Michael Modiri and Bradley Paumen have been locked in a protracted legal battle on both the criminal and civil ends after a business deal turned sour a few years ago. Today, they were back in the Supreme Court where an ongoing dispute involving shares in a joint venture took centre stage. The case before […]
Bradley Paumen gained widespread media attention in February 2016, when it was discovered that a contract had been placed on Modiri’s life during a land dispute involving access to Paumen’s Dark Night Cave Tours. Since then they, along with several others involved in the plot to kill the Israeli/American businessman, have been back and forth […]
Cameron Usher Senior first came to prominence in September 2017 when they Gang Suppression Unit raided a weed farm in Lucky Strike, where Usher and his son Kelvin, were seen on a Sunday afternoon. Kelvin would go missing for days, but Usher Senior was charged for marijuana cultivation. Today, Usher appeared in court to face […]
A legal battle for more than ninety-five million Belize dollars was back in court today before Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin. The Belize Bank Limited is continuing its quest to collect the multi-million-dollar UHS debt from the Government. Government maintains that the House of Representatives must first approve the payment. Back in January, G.O.B. tabled a […]
As you heard, the Financial Secretary was ordered to discuss the Bank’s settlement offer with the Prime Minister. But according to Attorney General Michael Peyrefitte, the government has already made a decision, which will be relayed to the court on Thursday. Peyrefitte told News Five that G.O.B.’s position on the UHS debt has been made […]
Also in the Supreme Court, a Honduran woman, who is accused of human trafficking, was denied bail by Justice Colin Williams. Lourdes Guerrero Moreno is accused of making a thirty-six-year-old woman a victim of human trafficking. Moreno has been living in Belize for several years in a common-law-relationship. These factors were not sufficient enough for […]
A former BWS employee walked from a rape charge today after more than four years awaiting trial. Fifty-six-year-old Eugene Reneau was accused of raping a twenty-seven-year-old woman in March 2014 near mile ten and a half on the Philip Goldson Highway. Today, when Reneau appeared before Justice Adolph Lucas, Crown Counsel Sherigne Rodriguez entered a […]
On Monday, Isela Cano was charged and arraigned for the manslaughter of her sister, twenty-six-year-old Honduran national Keidi Ramirez. It is believed that Cano and her parents restrained Ramirez during a drunken fit last Wednesday and she died in the process. Cano was not charged with murder and there seems to be a misunderstanding as […]
Two men charged for the brutal murder of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas were today denied bail by Supreme Court Justice Colin Williams. Ashton Vanegas and Terrence Fernandez were among five men who allegedly kidnapped and beheaded Pastor Lucas in 2016. The men, along with Keiron Fernandez, Ernest Henry Castillo, and the man believed to have orchestrated […]
The Supreme Court also dealt with other bail applications. One in particular that stood out was that of Darrell Usher. The thirty-two-year-old was charged and arraigned on Thursday after he ran over five persons with a vehicle on Cemetery Street in Belmopan, two days earlier. A total of twenty-two charges were slapped on him for […]
One more thing from the local courts….earlier this week, Belmopan resident Elquin Hernandez was remanded to the Central Prison in Hattieville for the murder of Jermain Sanker. Sanker was executed, shot to the face, on Cemetery Street in the Salvapan area as he sat in the driver’s seat of a rented car. Belmopan police believe […]
Arguments concluded today in the courtroom of Justice Courtney Abel who is hearing the case brought against the management of the central prison, Kolbe Foundation, by a former inmate, Orel Leslie. Seven persons testified, including Prison C.E.O. Virgilio Murillo who was cross-examined by attorney Audrey Matura. Leslie is challenging the prison for inhumane treatment he […]
Convicted criminal, thirty-five-year-old Bert Vasquez was in court today for his sentencing hearing in the courtroom of Justice Colin Williams. It took hours as the court heard a very lengthy mitigation plea from Vasquez, who represented himself. He told the court that he has not been afforded his constitutional right to a fair trial within […]
Orel Leslie’s civil case against the Kolbe Foundation and government continued today in the courtroom of Justice Courtney Abel. Leslie spent some time behind bars after being arrested and charged for the 2012 murder of B.D.F. soldier James Noralez. He beat the murder rap twice as he was never convicted. But according to Leslie, his […]
Leslie claims he was mistreated and suffered by the harsh conditions at the Belize Central Prison. His attorney, Audrey Matura, says Leslie suffered a grave illness that he had to be placed on a hypertension diet. Audrey Matura, Attorney for Orel Leslie “He got ill several times. He was dehydrated. There were basic things […]
A pool of local media personalities continues with a tour of the seat of the International Court of Justice at The Hague. Marleni Cuellar is among the journalists on assignment in the Netherlands. The highlight of the visit today was tour of the I.C.J.; it was a solemn occasion at an iconic building that houses […]
Orel Leslie has beaten a murder rap twice and since then he has been released from the Belize Central Prison. But today, he was back at the Supreme Court for a case where he appeared as a plaintiff, challenging the Kolbe Foundation and the government for a breach of his constitutional rights. While Leslie was […]
U.S. citizen Coleen Strom launched a lawsuit against Sittee River Wildlife Reserve in relation to the multimillion dollars Sanctuary Bay real estate scam. The architect of the scam, Andris Pukke, promised investors a lush piece of land, equipped with world class amenities on a fourteen thousand-acre property in southern Belize. That property is owned by […]
Two men are enjoying their freedom tonight after spending five years behind bars for murder. Twenty-three-year-old Micah Tillett and twenty-five-year-old Jed Burgess were acquitted of the 2013 murder of twenty-one-year-old Jamal Neal by Supreme Court Justice Marilyn Williams today. Senior Crown Counsel, Sheneiza Smith closed the prosecution’s case after the main witness could not be […]
In the lower courts, twenty-nine-year-old Aaron Lindo was arraigned for the crime of drug trafficking. Lindo, who was unrepresented, appeared before Magistrate Emmerson Banner and pleaded not guilty to trafficking over five pounds of weed. He was granted bail of five thousand dollars plus a surety of the same amount. But before posting bail, Lindo […]
