Category: Crime

Belize City resident, Kareem Franklin, was found not guilty of two counts of attempted murder.  However, Justice Candace Nanton found the twenty-seven-year-old guilty of two counts of use of deadly means of harm with intent to cause grievous harm. Investigators say that Franklin was involved in a shootout that took place in Belize City on March first, 2016 in the Saint Martin’s De Porres area. Sentencing is set for September 26, 2024, and he faces up to ten years imprisonment on each count. Franklin was accused of attempting to murder two police officers, P.C. Stephen Choco and Joseph Sutherland. On the day of the incident, the officers were on motorcycle patrol on Mahogany Street when they encountered Franklin, who was acting suspiciously. Franklin opened fire at the officers, but fortunately, he missed them. Franklin denied being present at the scene, claiming he was at home and later at a football field when the incident occurred. However, video footage captured near a dental clinic in the area showed a man identified by two separate police officers as Franklin with a gun in his hand. In her ruling, Justice Nanton stated that while the Crown did not prove Franklin intended to kill, his actions showed an intention to cause grievous harm. Franklin was represented by Attorney Ronell Gonzalez.

Two policemen, charged for the murder of Orange Walk resident Dyandre Chee in March 2023, have been granted bail of twenty thousand dollars each when they appeared before Justice Derick Sylvester earlier today.  Viewers would recall that the shooting death of Chee sparked public outrage in the officer-involved incident.  Chee was shot and killed while riding a motorcycle and being pursued by the policemen.  Attorney Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley has been instrumental in the case and gave a synopsis of what took place in court.

Richard ‘Dickie’ Bradley, Attorney-at-law

“A little over a year ago killing in Orange Walk Town in which a person, a passenger on a motorcycle, had been shot by police officers and fatally shot, and there were major protests in regards to the matter because they had previous killings by police of persons in Orange Walk under suspect circumstances.  But be that as it may, the two police officers, Solomon Cowo and Esmin Flores, were charged for murder four days after that shooting and they, in fact, were given disclosure only about maybe two months ago.  And they agreed to proceed to a preliminary inquiry without legal representation. So a preliminary inquiry was held and their matter would normally end up on the list for the September cases, not necessarily for trial because there are many, many more cases before them.  But it had concluded on the preliminary inquiry and is now basically heading for the High Court in the Orange Walk jurisdiction.  Being police officers, they are a bit familiar with the law, they were able to reach out to the legal aid services where former prosecutor Sherigne Rodriguez, and I think she was a former magistrate, I remember going to San Pedro in front of her, and today her boss, the director of legal services was in court.  The matter is this, that today for us attorneys on the defense side, marks a significant step forward, this is a huge development. In the sense that the honorable Justice Derick Sylvester was the judge that the matter of an application for bail for the persons who are accused of murder, he has been hearing this matter.  Today is not the first day, this had been before the court for a couple of weeks and he has in fact directed that they make certain submissions, written submissions, this is the course of records in the magistrates court, and today His Lordship brought a very lengthy written decision.”

Today, Doris Grant was due in court once again, but did not make an appearance to stand for her charges. However, being that the police forgot to make a request for her removal from the Belize Central Prison, the case was adjourned. Grant was arraigned on May twentieth, 2024, on fourteen counts of theft, fourteen counts of obtaining property by deception and twelve counts of obtaining money transfer by deception. Allegations are that between the period of January first, 2022, to July 2022, by either, deception by money transfer or obtaining property by deception or through theft, Grant stole over one hundred and twenty-one thousand dollars. No plea was taken from her, and Grant was due back in court on those theft related offenses today. Grant’s attorney, Ronell Gonzalez, was surprised that his client was not brought down and only learned of her absence when he was heading to court this morning on the matter. Grant and her common-law husband, Austin Underwood, were both previously remanded to the Belize Central Prison after being charged with being a member of a gang and were held further under the state of emergency for an additional sixty days.

Today, a man was handed a twenty-year sentence and additional twenty-two year sentence after being convicted for the rape of his stepdaughter and sexual assault on separate occasions. As the sentences are to run concurrently, the sixty-six-year-old retired sergeant of police will spend twenty-two years behind bars. During mitigation, no one spoke on the offender’s behalf. Additional aggravating factors included the young age of the victim and his relation to the child. On that day when he was found guilty, the offender arrived at court an hour late for his verdict and arrived moments before the judge was about to execute a bench warrant for his arrest. The stepfather had been allowed to continue on his bail until the day he was convicted of the crime.

Twenty-one-year-old Robert Arnold is facing another charge of murder after being arraigned on Wednesday for the shooting death of businessman Cruz Magana on June third.  It is alleged that Arnold, who is presently on remand for the murder of Rudolph ‘Bobo Youth’ Lewis, entered the home of Elizabeth Magana in the Fresh Pond Community. He, along with an accomplice, reportedly proceeded to rob the family of two thousand, five hundred dollars and personal electronics, before shooting thirty-two-year-old Cruz Magana.  The incident shocked residents in that quiet neighborhood and police continued their investigation, despite not having much to go by.  Their diligence paid off and yesterday, Arnold was brought down from the Belize Central Prison and taken before the lower courts where he was charged with murder.  On June twenty-fifth, Arnold, along with twenty-two-year-old Travis Herbert, was charged for the March murder of Rudolph Lewis.