Thirty-two-year-old Kurtis Belisle has been arraigned on three counts of manslaughter by negligence for killing three female passengers who were inside his vehicle when it collided into a tree. The charges come almost eleven months after the incident took place near mile ten on the Philip Goldson Highway that claimed the lives of twenty-seven-year-old Virginia Davis, seventeen-year-old Dorothy Davis, and seventeen-year-old Torrie Gentle. Belisle was driving a Ford Ranger pickup when he lost control of the vehicle and crashed into a tree. Tonight, Belisle is out on bail after appearing before Magistrate Lois Young. Bail was offered in the sum of five thousand dollars.
Category: Belize District
Public Outrage as Man Caught Abusing Child
Public outrage is increasing by the minute as more social media users view a video of a man abusing a male child. The disturbing video was posted on Facebook.
The police say that an investigation has been launched.
The heartbreaking video shows the man throwing the boy to the ground. He slaps and kicks the vulnerable boy repeatedly. The boy cries as the man continues to attack him.
During one of the instances, a woman intervenes. News Five has not confirmed where the incidents took place.
At today’s police press briefing, A.C.P. Hilberto Romero, Regional Commander, Eastern Division, told reporters “an investigation is being carried out in regards to that video that was on Facebook.”
On Facebook, users are expressing their disgust at the man. One wrote, “This makes my stomach turn, I am so angry. That man is a perfect example of what ails this nation. Disgusting. Fire him. Jail him. Somebody deal with ah.”
Another said, I hope he is found and rots in prison…”
Earlier today, UNICEF issued a release calling for urgent action to end violence against children. UNICEF said it is “gravely concerned by the spike and gravity of incidents of violence that have been impacting children in Belize over the last couple of months.”
Shyne Denounces Diddy’s “Repugnant” Behavior
Opposition Leader, Moses “Shyne” Barrow says he vehemently denounces the “repugnant behavior of Sean Diddy Combs captured on the video in which he is seen physically assaulting Mrs Cassie Ventura-Fine.”
CNN aired security video that showed him beating singer Cassie in a Los Angeles hotel hallway in 2016.
Diddy took to social media on Sunday to apologize. “It’s so difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you gotta do that,” Combs begins in a brief recording shared on Instagram. “I was ****ed up … I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions.”
In his statement, Shyne said “There is no place for Violence against Women anywhere on the planet. As a father of a precious daughter, a global citizen and the next Prime Minister of Belize I want absolutely nothing to do with people who engage in this pattern of diabolical behaviour.”
CNN’s report is the latest public relations crisis for the former hitmaker, who also finds himself at the centre of a federal investigation after agents raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami in late March.
According to CNN, the investigation was handled by the Department of Homeland Security’s team that handles human trafficking crimes.
Accused Child Kidnapper Criminally Charged
His name is Kareem Emory Hamilton and he has been charged with kidnapping. This is after a Belize City woman, Shandy Pech, reported to police that her five-year-old daughter was taken by a man. It happened on Thursday.
Wrapping herself in a towel, Pech ran up the street in the direction of the man. With the help of neighbours, they detained the man until the police arrived. Though Pech didn’t know the man, he identified himself to officers, revealing a past conviction for an unnatural crime against a child with special needs.
Mother Acts Quickly to Rescue Kidnapped Child
A woman is happy that she was able to act swiftly to save her child from what would have likely been a traumatic experience on Thursday. Shandy Pech told News Five today that she was just about to take a shower when another child alerted her that a man had just taken her five-year-old daughter from off a trampoline in their yard. Pech said that she quickly wrapped a towel around herself and bolted up the street in the direction that the little boy pointed where the man went with her daughter. With the help of some neighbours, she said they detained the man, who police took away. While Pech said that she did not know the man, after he identified himself to the officers, she realized that he has been convicted in the past of an unnatural crime upon a child with special needs. Pech decided to make a Facebook post using the man’s name and picture to alert other parents and guardians to be wary of strangers who are passing through their neighbourhood.
Shandy Pech, Mother of Kidnapped Child
“I was about to take a bath when another child that she was playing with in the yard came and he told me, he said that someone is taking your child. So I was like, what? And I jumped up in my lone towel and I came out and then I saw him already down the street going with my child. And that’s when I ran him down and three other neighbors assisted me to get her back.”
Marion Ali
“So he was carrying her in his hands or just walking with her?”
Shandy Pech
“In his hands.”
Marion Ali
“And she was screaming?”
Shandy Pech
“No, she wasn’t screaming and when I talked to her, she said she didn’t scream because she was afraid he would hurt her.”
Marion Ali
“This person, is it the first time you’ve seen him? Do you know him?”
Shandy Pech
“This is the first time, honestly, I’ve seen him. I’ve never seen him before.”
Marion Ali
“So what went through you when you saw that?”
Shandy Pech
“When I saw that, all I did was go into mommy mode and I ran him down. I didn’t even care if my towel dropped. I didn’t care about anything. I was just trying to get her.”
Marion Ali
“Did you have any kind of an exchange with him? What did he say?”
Shandy Pech
“Yes, I had an exchange. When I saw him, I grabbed my daughter from him and I asked him, who are you? He said, oh, this is my niece. I’m her uncle. I’m like, but if this is your niece here, her uncle, I’m her mother. So how come I don’t know you? And that’s when he put the child down and then other neighbors came and assisted me. I’ve looked him up and I’ve seen that he’s a repeated offender. He has done it before. I’ve got messages from several people stating that he did it to someone they know. I want court action because this isn’t the first time that he actually did something like this and I just want parents to be more vigilant and look for their children more.”
Saturday Night is Fight Night Inside Civic
Saturday night is fight night inside the Belize City Civic Center as Belizean boxer Eduardo ‘Mecanico” Esquivel is set to take on Mexican Albino “Cobra” Meza. The championship match is being sanctioned by the World Boxing Council. Several fights are scheduled for the night, leading up to the championship bout. Boxers from five different countries will be competing on the night of the event. And to top it all off, Boxing Hall of Fame Referee, Joe Cortez will be in attendance. He is in Belize to work alongside the Belize Boxing Development Council to uplift the discipline here in the country. We spoke with Assad Martinez, founder of the Belize Boxing Development Council.
Assad Martinez, Founder, Belize Boxing Development Council
“This is what I would call the threshold event for the nation. Of course, we have the boxing hall of fame referee Mr. Joe Cotez that came from Las Vegas to help us build our intangible capacities for the sports. Those who have been coming to see our fights know what they are going to get. But this particular one is going to bring even more because we have two fighters from the U.S. Then we have this guy Albino Cobra who is fighting the Mechanico. He is very hard. He is very consistent, so this is a very difficult fight for us. But we do what we do to set the proper paradigm for our athletes to succeed, in particular in boxing. We have had boxing in the past, whether you want to go from Simon Lucas to Lightburn, to Dakers but we never set the proper intangible paradigm for the fighters to progress and join the global talent pool and make economics from it. Boxing is an economic sport and as Belizeans we have the physical attribute and the physical attribute and the intellectual temperament to succeed in this sport.”
Brushfires are Destructive to the Flora and Fauna
And while a vast part of Columbia Village is on fire currently, the rising temperatures are not helping the situation any. Today, a news team headed out along a portion of the George Price Highway, and while there was no burning bush along the stretch leading to the Belize Zoo, they captured evidence of wildfires that swept through the area a week or two ago. Other areas that are still burning are in the Mountain Pine Ridge, and the smoke that has drifted this way makes visibility upon the horizon difficult. Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
Today the brushes along the George Price Highway showed all the signs of fires that have burnt through several areas. Large tracts of land show parched trees and greenery that are left bare by the blaze that ripped through. The Forest Department trains non-government personnel on how to fight wildfires, the agriculture department tackles agricultural blazes, and the fire department deals with fires that threaten or burn property. Chief Forest Officer, John Pinelo says that if you have to light a bush fire in a rural setting, there are some specific dos and don’ts.
Via phone: John Pinelo Jr, Deputy Chief Forest Officer
“We recommend that you burn fires in the morning or in the evening if you need to burn. And if you’re going to do that, you need a fire line. You need to have clearance around your boundary so that it does not jump in somebody else’s property. Unfortunately, too often, people like their fires and they walk away and leave it and then it jumps into somebody else’s property. And that. Becomes the beginning of a wildfire that can recover on hundreds of acres, maybe thousands of acres. That is one of the major issues we have in the country right now. We have this tradition of burning bush before the rain comes so we can plant and that is what is exacerbating this issue. We’re already having this climate change problem. And we have people still burning and doing these types of activities for the environment. It is not good for the. Air people with allergies, people with asthma are heavily affected. It is bad for visibility.”
Pinelo says the degree of damage and losses that these wildfires cause to the environment is unnecessary and is preventable.
“It’s dangerous and not to mention the loss of biodiversity that we’re having not only the trees, but in the thousands and thousands of wildlife that are getting killed because of these fires. They can’t really leave for animals that can’t be their area. They get burnt, we lose all of that biodiversity because of all these fires.”
“Right now in Columbia, there’s a huge wildfire burning people’s farms. Threatening hoses, because somebody started a fire here and it came to it until it was done. So now we have this major issue burning our forces are burning people’s houses down, burning their crops because of negligence.”
Anyone who wants to light a fire for agricultural purposes must get a permit from the Forest Department. Failure to provide evidence of this to the police can lead to arrests. Marion Ali for News Five.
A Businessman is Acquitted of Coast Guard’s Murder
Businessman Leon Perez has been acquitted of the murder of Elston Morter. On Independence Day 2021, Morter, a coast guard seaman, was stabbed to death in Hattieville during a misunderstanding in the American Site area of Hattieville. Perez, who maintained his innocence from the beginning, was freed of the charge earlier today in the courtroom of Justice Candace Nanton. During the trial, crown called a witness to the stand who testified that Perez wasn’t the one who inflicted the deadly stab wounds on Morter. According to Perez’s witness, on the day in question, his wife informed him of an altercation taking place outside of their residence. When he went outside to enquire about the altercation, he observed an individual take a knife out of Perez’s pocket, ran behind Morter and proceeded to stab him. Justice Nanton noted that while the court went through the guidelines of Perez’s case, it also considered the case of the crown. After deliberating, Justice Nanton acknowledged that a case was indeed made out by the crown; however, in her view, there was reasonable doubt put forward by the defense which is why she found Perez not guilty.
Louis Gillett Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murder
Businessman Alvin Godfrey was shot inside his place of business in April 2003, during an attempted robbery. He died several months later. The man who pulled the trigger has remained incarcerated for more than twenty years and on Wednesday, convicted murderer Louis Gillett was given a life sentence without the possibility of parole until he has served twenty-nine years in prison. Justice Nigel Pilgrim considered the sentence and, despite the fact that Gillett has served more than half of the sentence and is eligible for parole, he has shown little reform, having only enrolled in one rehab program since being locked up.
Former Coast Guard Seaman is Acquitted of Arson
Thirty-two-year-old Emmanuel McFadzean was accused of causing a fire that destroyed three coast guard vessels back in 2022. He was subsequently charged with arson after it was alleged that he was stealing fuel from one of the boats. Today, the former coast guard seaman was acquitted of arson when a jury of nine returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty. Tears of joy ran down McFadzean’s face as he embraced his daughters following the High Court decision. This afternoon, attorney Bryan Neal said there was insufficient evidence to prove his client guilty of the charge that was brought against him.
Bryan Neal, Attorney-at-law
“This jury really considered the evidence in this case and returned a not guilty verdict because, simply put, there was no evidence of arson against this coast guard, or former coast guard, because I understand that he was relieved of his position last year.”
Reporter
“So tell us, give us an idea of how the vessels, as said in the evidence, or the alleged evidence against Mr. MacFadzean that the Boston Whaler, valued at over six hundred thousand dollars went up in flames. They alleged that he da di man weh dehn sih di run from it and he was charged for arson. What was actually those evidence to support that the jurors saw…”
Bryan Neal
“If there was any evidence, I didn’t see it, and that was our submission. Mr. Arnold and I represented Mr. McFadzean. There was no evidence that he was stealing gas, there was no evidence that he was lighting fuse, there was no evidence that he was doing anything negligently to cause the fire and the jury considered it. The only evidence came from the fire expert and he conceded quite honorably that the fire was accidental and that nobody could have started the fire. So I think the jury, that weighed heavily on the jury’s mind and they returned, in my mind, the right verdict. Justice has been served.”