Mason Murder Trial Resumes with Voir Dire
Following a lengthy adjournment, the murder trial of William ‘Danny’ Mason and his accomplices resumed before Justice Antoinette Moore in the Belmopan Supreme Court on Wednesday. Onboard are attorneys Bryan Neal and Norman Rodriguez, representing co-accused suspects Keiron Fernandez and Ashton Vanegas, respectively. Mason retains the counsel of Guyanese attorney Dexter Todd. Having apprised the defense teams of the critical aspects of the trial thus far, Justice Moore continued with a voir dire, a trial within a trial. Notwithstanding the fact that the media has been barred from sitting in on the session, this afternoon News Five spoke with attorney Rodriguez who spoke carefully on the progress of the voir dire.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney for Ashton Vanegas
“Well as I believe everyone knows, they’re doing the voir dire right now and that is something that we don’t speak on, the reason why is [because] it’s a trial within a trial and the purpose of that is to avoid anybody but the judge hearing what is being put forward.”
Norman Rodriguez
Isani Cayetano
“My understanding is that there were several other witnesses to take the stand today before a decision in the voir dire is handed down. Have these individuals come before the court?”
Norman Rodriguez
“Yes, we had three this morning and the prosecution has two more to bring before the court, however, we may have an adjournment this afternoon as there was a little setback with one of the counsels and an urgent matter had to be addressed. So I will be holding brief for the purposes of the adjournment.”
Isani Cayetano
“Is everything on schedule insofar as the procedure this time around?”
Norman Rodriguez
“I think everyone also knows that this case would have, the people involved would have wanted to complete this case from months ago. So it’s not on schedule but this is how it is with the legal profession and what happens within. Sometimes the court will set dates for things to happen and you have setbacks like these so there is no control and I don’t believe that it would be fair to hold any part of the process to a set date because of those reasons.”
