A teacher in San Pedro was arraigned on Thursday in the San Pedro Magistrate’s Court on three counts of sexual assault. The incidents allegedly occurred between January and March of this year with three students who are enrolled at the same school where he teaches. One of the victims is fourteen and the other two are fifteen years old. He appeared in court with his attorney, Ronnell Gonzalez, and was offered bail of nine thousand dollars which he met. He is to surrender his travel documents, not to apply for new travel documents, not to leave Belize without permission of the court, not to contact complainants and not to be within a hundred yards of the complainant. He is to report back to court July seventeenth.
Category: Crime
Policeman Gets Two Years for Sexually Assaulting a Minor
A police officer from Santa Clara Village, Corozal District is serving a two-year sentence at the Belize Central Prison after being found guilty of sexually assaulting a minor. Twenty-seven-year-old Melvin Canul was convicted and sentenced to jail time this morning when he appeared unrepresented in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court. The police constable was accused of squeezing the buttocks of a seventeen-year-old girl back in September 2023. The incident happened near Lopez Mateo Park in the King’s Park area. In her report, the teenager said that shortly after four p.m. on September twelfth, she was at a police booth on 17th Street where she was returning a flag she had borrowed from a cadet instructor. While folding the flag, a Hispanic officer whom she did not know, passed by and squeezed her on the left side of her buttocks. When she turned around, she observed that the policeman was standing behind her. Canul was subsequently arraigned and pleaded not guilty to the charge of sexual assault and was offered and met bail in the sum of three thousand dollars. In court today, Chief Magistrate Jayani Wegodapola found Canul guilty of the charge and sentenced him to two years in prison.
Marvin Cal Charged for Manslaughter After Fatal RTA
Forty-seven-year-old Oscar Mayen Rhodas, a Guatemalan truck driver, lost his life in a fatal road traffic accident along the Boom/Hattieville Road eleven months ago during a road traffic accident. A Dodge Dakota driven by a security guard, twenty-six-year-old Marvin Cal, collided into a pickup truck that Rhodas was traveling in. The impact caused Rhodas to be flung from the pan of the vehicle and onto the road, fatally injuring him. This morning, Cal appeared in the lower courts where he was read three traffic and indictable offenses, including manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct and drove motor vehicle without due care and attention. No plea was taken from Cal, who was unrepresented, and bail was granted in the sum of eight thousand dollars, plus two sureties of four thousand dollars each. Until the matter is disposed of, Cal is to report to the Hattieville Police Station every Tuesday and Friday, beginning May twenty-eighth. He returns to court on July twenty-second, 2024.
Stepfather Pleads Guilty and Remanded for Physical Abuse of Minor
Tonight, a violent stepfather is spending his first night on remand at the Belize Central Prison after pleading guilty to physically abusing a three-year-old child earlier this week. Footage of the repulsive incident sparked public outrage on Monday when thirty-three-year-old Devain Flores was seen getting off a motorcycle before kicking and hitting the little boy repeatedly. The Belize City laborer, who stands accused of mistreating the infant, appeared unrepresented before Magistrate Baja Shoman. The revolting episode prompted Commissioner of Police Chester Williams to show up to the lower courts this afternoon in his capacity as a prosecutor where Flores was brought up on two counts of cruelty to a child. Following Flores’ arraignment, ComPol Williams spoke with the media and explained why the charges against the perpetrator were later upgraded.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“It’s a very important matter I must say, it involves a three-year-old who was being abused, obviously by a thirty-three-year-old, and I think that when we have situations of such, the police department, as well as any other organization that has to do with upholding the rights of children, we must do our best in making sure that those persons are brought to justice. Over and over, we are seeing that our young people are being abused in various ways, shape or form and as a responsible organization we will always do our best in working in conjunction with other organizations such as UNICEF, Department of Youth Services, NCFC, et cetera. So we have to make sure we do what we can to protect our children, so we must send a strong signal to abusers of children that we are not playing, we are serious about this.”
Reporter
“Explain the process of how this was upgraded from common assault to these more serious charges.”
Chester Williams
“Well after having viewed the video footage, myself, I believe that the charge of common assault was inadequate. It was basically putting a slap on the wrist of the perpetrator and so I had directed the investigators to further work to gather more evidence and record more statements. That was done yesterday and I must commend the officers from the Domestic Violence Unit for responding quickly to my request. Having obtained the request from them, I communicated with the Director of Public Prosecutions and we both agreed that the charges should be upgraded from common assault to that of abusing a child, basically.”
ComPol Williams: “It will send a strong message.”
The child’s mother was initially reluctant to cooperate with investigators. When the gravity of the situation was explained to her, she had a change of mind. With Flores pleading guilty to both charges, the prosecution is now seeking a custodial sentence which carries a minimum of ten years in prison. Commissioner Williams says today’s successful conviction should send a clear message to perpetrators of child abuse.
Chester Williams
“We had to speak with the mother and explain to her the nature of what we are dealing with. You can’t be a mother and see that your child is being abused in such magnitude and want nothing. I don’t think that a woman should love a man more than how they love their own children and so she was spoken to and eventually she decided that she was going to cooperate with the police and she did. We got the statement from her and so we were able to make significant progress.”
Reporter
“And you got a conviction.”
Chester Williams
“Well of course, yes, the defendant pled guilty to the two counts. And so, as you have heard my submission to the court, I will be seeking a custodial sentence. I don’t think that this is an offense that requires a fine, as a matter of fact, the offense under Section Sixty, Subsection One of the Criminal Code clearly states that it has a minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment. But we do know that even though that is stipulated by law, the magistrate still has that discretion that they can exercise in not giving a custodial sentence and hence the reason I indicated to the court my intent to seek a custodial sentence when the day of sentencing comes.”
Isani Cayetano
“How stern a message do you believe that this now sends to any abuser of children out there?”
Chester Williams
“Well, I would want to think that it will send a strong message. There are many people out there who are constantly abusing children, many of which is not known to the public and I hope that they come more and more known to the public so that we can address them. It’s the only way that we can deal with the issue of child abuse.”
Man Shot During Attempted Robbery in Cayo
A man was shot during an attempted robbery in Cayo today. The incident happened this morning in San Ignacio and the victim was shot to the left shoulder, as Commissioner Williams shared. Williams says the police are investigating and reviewing several video recordings to nail the culprit.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“This morning police responded to an attempted robbery in the San Ignacio area. Upon arrival they met an East Indian descent person with a gunshot injury to the left shoulder. The injury was not classified as life-threatening. Police are in the process of viewing a number of surveillance footages to ascertain exactly what happened and are pursuing two suspects at this time.”
Police Detain Several Persons Regarding Cayo Murder
Investigators in San Ignacio still have little information to go on relating to the murder of Jose Mejia. Mejia’s decomposing body was discovered early Tuesday morning in the Victor Galvez football stadium. He had been stabbed multiple times to his neck and chest. Police have detained several persons and are asking the public to come forth with relevant information to solve the case.
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“The police found the body yesterday in a preliminary stage of decomposition. There is not much information forthcoming, so I want to appeal to the public: anyone who may have any information pertinent to this investigation, please feel free to call the police, 911 or call the A-TIPS number, 922 and provide the information and we see where we go from there.”
Reporter
“You do have suspects detained though?”
Chester Williams
“At this time, yes, I know police are interviewing a number of persons but we cannot say at this time that there is credible information to indicate that they may be involved.”
Businessman Shot During Robbery
Businessman Dake Yu was shot during a robbery at 61 Supermarket in San Ignacio Town.
Shots were heard in the Santiago Juan Layout area. Witnesses say that two armed men barged into the store and held Yu and employees at gunpoint. According to reports, Yu was shot once.
The robbers escaped on a motorcycle.
Police are investigating.
San Ignacio Man Murdered in Victor Galvez Stadium
Tonight, police have another murder on their hands to solve. This time, the incident took place in San Ignacio. That’s where the victim, Jose Mejia, also known as Kocho, was stabbed overnight. The crime scene is a popular sporting facility – the Victor Galvez Stadium. Mejia was last seen with a friend socializing at the location on Monday night. His body was found with multiple stab wounds to the neck and chest. While Mejia’s friends are gripped by the news, police are trying to close in on who’s responsible and why he was killed. Mejia, an errand man who liked to drink, was not known to trouble anyone. The area where the incident happened is on a main road. News Five’s Marion Ali reports.
Marion Ali, Reporting
The body of Jose Mejia was found early this morning in the Victor Galvez Stadium in San Ignacio. Mejia had been stabbed to the neck and chest and left for dead. A pool of blood near a bench in the middle of the stadium showed where he took his last breath. A friend of his, Sahib Espat, told News Five that he saw Mejia earlier in the day, but nothing seemed awry.
Voice of: Sahib Espat, Friend of deceased
“I know him quite some years since I’ve been working with my dad. This is his place to be. He was working here with the neighbor, and I know him on the streets. All in all, he was a respected man, respectable person, always hailing people, a fun person, always full of jokes and stuff. And he used to come here in his free time, he used to come here smoking cigarette, come for lunch. My stepmom used to invite him for lunch and he used to be our friend here, family friend. Every day he used to pass on the street there, always giving us the time, and always a friendly person.”
Marion Ali
“And the last time you saw him?”
“The last time I saw him was yesterday around this same time – around midday, maybe 1 or 2 pm. He passed there. I remember he hailed me. He was like, hey, yeah, Tuls, he tell me. And he crossed the street and ih seh I di come back, but from then, I never seen him again.”
Espat said Mejia indulged frequently in alcohol and thought that he had some undesirables as friends, but he did not expect to hear of his murder.
“In the night I never hear anything and two of my friends saw him and told me that they saw him drunk with another friend. And then in the morning I woke up to the bad news that it was him that who got murdered.”
Marion Ali
“Do you know if anybody was threatening him?”
Voice of Sahib Espat
“For the moment, I don’t know if he was being threatened or anything. But I know that with the friends and his company he had, they were not good company.”
People known to police?
Voice of Sahib Espat
“People known for using drugs. And I think anybody under the influence of drugs are bad company, you know.”
So far, police have not detained any suspects for the murder and are investigating. Marion Ali for News Five.
BREAKING: Body Found in Cayo
The body of a male person was found early this morning in San Ignacio Town, Cayo. Preliminary investigations suggest that the body was found after six o’clock at Victor Galves Stadium.
According to reports, the deceased was seen with stab wounds to the back and neck. Police are investigating.
This is a developing story.