Shandoy Jeffords sentenced to 10 years in prison for Manslaughter

Shandoy Jeffords

Twenty-seven year-old Shandoy Jeffords of Belize City was convicted of manslaughter last Thursday in the death of fifty year old Antonio Almendarez, a Security Guard of Fido’s restaurant on San Pedro. Jeffords was charged with manslaughter and not murder because he had agreed to testify in trial against three others, but he had failed to so do. Almendarez was killed during a burglary at his work place in the wee hours of July twenty-fifth, 2005. The jury also found Jeffords guilty of burglarizing the restaurant and club. Justice Adolph Lucas sentenced him to ten years imprisonment for manslaughter and seven years for burglary.  The two terms are to run concurrently with each other. The only good news for him was that a previous conviction in 2010 for gun and ammunition charges will also run concurrently. Jeffords was eligible for release from prison in March of 2013 but that has now been pushed back ten years. Jeffords last words this morning were that he had been wrongfully convicted. He is one of four men believed to have executed the burglary and murder of Almendarez. Back in 2005, he was given immunity in exchange for his testimony against Elvis Williams, Luis Lalin and Austin Mungia. But when Jeffords failed to show up in the trial against the men in 2007, they were freed and he was charged with manslaughter. He had given a caution statement implicating himself in the murder but later claimed he gave the statement under threat. Jeffords’ sentences are to take effect beginning May twenty-second, 2012 when his trial started in the Supreme Court.