On Thursday night, police captured a suspected murderer that has been on the run since October twenty-fourth, 2023. Twenty-two-year-old Lewis Blake was wanted for questioning in connection with the murder of Joel Andrews and Martin Sho in Hattieville. Well, after months in hiding, it appears that Lewis was spotted in the village and an off-duty officer pursued him. Commissioner Williams gave us more details.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“You would know that for some time now we have been looking for Blake Lewis, and again Blake Lewis is wanted in respect of two incidents. The double murder that took place in the back of Hatieville and a recent shooting where a person was shot and survived. Since then he has been eluding the police. We try to work as best as we can to do Ops and surveillance and these kinds of things to capture him but he has always been able to stay one step ahead of the police. Last night the Gi3 committed themselves to conduct investigation and go into the area and do certain work and the work that last night they were able to flush out Blake Lewis. He was spotted by the team riding a motorcycle and he practically rode into the police vehicle and fell off the motorcycle. He ran and the police pursued him he escaped. A couple minutes later he was encountered by a police officer from Hatieville CIB. He fired two shots at the police and the police returned fire and he dropped his weapon and ran. He was able to escape. We found the weapon he had, it was picked up and proceed and sent to the lab. Today the GI3 and CIB went back into the area, determined to locate him and we knew that he was injured following the fall. They were able to locate him across the river so he is now in custody. “
Joseph Budna is once again making the news, and, as has been the case in the past, it is not for good reasons. He is wanted by police in connection with a cybercrime allegation. Reports are that Ramon “Monchi” Cervantes filed a police report against Budna for cyber bullying. ComPol Williams says a warrant is out for Budna’s arrest.
Chester Williams
Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police
“The Cybercrime Unit in Belmopan has been extremely busy. People are becoming more familiar with the law and are making these reports as they occur. The unit is tasked with making sure they do follow up on these reports as they occur. The unit is tasked with making sure they do follow up. Yes I am aware that Minister Cervantes has filed a report against Joseph Budna in respect to cyber bullying. Police is again looking for Budna to follow through with that report to see if there is anything there he can be charged for.”
A man who was caught stealing several items inside Simon Quan Store on Queen Street was ordered to pay thirty times the cost of the two items he stole after he pleaded guilty to the offense. Thirty-five-year-old Rashaan Kadeem Castillo, an unemployed of a Holy Emmanuel Street address in Belize City, was arraigned this morning in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Coney Drive on a charge of theft. Allegations are that on Wednesday, Castillo took a pack of chocolates valued less than five dollars and a pair of reading glasses, also worth less than five dollars. The magistrate imposed a fine of three hundred dollars, plus five dollars cost of court. The store owner reported that on Wednesday evening sometime after six, he was working at the cash register inside the establishment when he was alerted by one of his employees that there was someone shoplifting in the store. The store’s security guard searched the man and found the stolen items tucked under his shirt in his pants waist. Castillo has until April thirtieth to pay the fine, or he will spend three months in prison.
A man was fined today for consuming alcoholic drinks in a public space. Twenty-five-year-old Francisco Torres pleaded guilty to public drinking after he was caught drinking a beer in public. The incident happened on January twenty-eighth on West Canal. In court, Torres wasted no time to plead guilty to the charge, and picked up a fine of thirty dollars plus five dollars cost of court. Torres has until March twelfth to pay the fine or he will spend a week at the Belize Central Prison.
Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, has pressed charges against his brother, Arthur Williams, for alleged cyber bullying. This morning, Arthur Williams was escorted to the Belize City Magistrates Court in handcuffs. He appeared unbothered as he raised his shackled arms for the camera. Williams was unrepresented in court where he was read three charges, two counts of using a computer system to disseminate false information with the intent to cause another person to be subjected to public ridicule or embarrassment, and one count of using a computer system to intimidate a person under the Cybercrime Act. Williams pleaded not guilty to all three charges. The charges stem from several slanderous posts on Facebook that were created on January seventh. It is alleged that Arthur Williams is the individual behind those posts about his own brother, Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams. He was offered bail in the sum of ten thousand dollars, plus one surety of the same amount. He met bail and was released from police custody. The matter was adjourned to March twenty-seventh. Williams says he intends to get an attorney to represent him in court at the next hearing.
In January 2020, thirty-six-year-old Anthony Parks was gunned downed in Independence Village, he succumbed to his injuries eleven days later. But when his suspected killer was convicted of murder in April 2022, Shane Bennett escaped from lawful custody and fled to Punta Gorda where he was recaptured shortly thereafter. Tonight, Bennett is serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole until after he has completed a minimum of twenty-five years in prison. Bennett has been on remand at the Belize Central Prison for the past three years and that’s the only time that will be deducted from his lengthy prison stay. That’s the judgment of High Court Justice Antoinette Moore earlier today.
Meanwhile in Corozal Town on Saturday night, an unnamed gunman came whistling at a residence, and when twenty-eight-year-old Orlando Vasquez peered outside of his mother’s house to see who it was, he was met with a barrage of gunshots. Vasquez is presently hospitalized and investigators are seeking a person of interest.
“On Saturday, January 20th, 2024, around eight p.m., Corozal police responded to an area in the Joseito Layout area where they found Orlando Vasquez, twenty-eight-years old with gunshot injuries. Orlando Vasquez reported that he was at home when he heard someone whistle. He came out to see who it was, at which point a male person fired several shots towards him, causing injuries to him. He is at the hospital receiving treatment and is in a stable condition. We are seeking one suspect.”
Reporter
“Sir, could this be a case of mistaken identity because I believe he was at his mother’s house?”
Hilberto Romero
“Yes, he was at his mother’s house and when he heard the whistling he came out to check who it was.”
Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.
The Minister of Home Affairs criticized Hot Off the Press for the way it attacked the women and for, in his words, “adding insult to injury” by showing the video recording publicly of the two alleged victims. The actions by Hot of the Press, according to Minister Musa, who is also an attorney, prove nothing at all of the accused’s innocence.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
“I don’t want to acknowledge Hot Off The Press as a legitimate media house, and I’m sure that other media houses can look to this particular social media platform sorry – media house as carrying out very despicable actions by showing imagery and video footage from the nightclub that night that really did not go to prove anything at all. And then to further insult to injury to make a commentary about how that in some way exonerates the individual, I just find it to be downright unacceptable and despicable.”
Viewers please note: This Internet newscast is a verbatim transcript of our evening television newscast. Where speakers use Kriol, we attempt to faithfully reproduce the quotes using a standard spelling system.
Online sales scams have become an all too familiar occurrence in the digital age. We have reported on numerous cases that were brought to the attention of the police. Recently, a man was arrested and charged for allegedly scamming a woman of fourteen hundred dollars for a sofa set he never delivered. We have also reported incidents involving vehicles and electronic devices. Well, one Ladyville resident was very close to making a deposit for the very same sofa set scam that another woman fell victim to. She saw some red flags during her online and telephone interactions with the purported seller. So, what did she do? She threatened to send the police after the individuals and decided to forego the purchase. News Five’s Paul Lopez takes a closer look at the matter and the steps victims can take. Here is that report.
Paul Lopez, Reporting
Reports of online sales scams have become all too common. The latest person to be charged for a related offense is twenty-six-year-old Hattieville Resident, Austin Williams. He was charged for scamming an elderly woman out of fourteen hundred dollars for a sofa set he never delivered. We spoke via phone to a Ladyville resident who almost fell for Williams’ Facebook scam.
Voice of: Ladyville Resident
Voice of: Ladyville Resident
“I was just looking on Facebook Marketplace because I like looking up there to see if there is anything I want and I saw this beautiful white sofa, white leather sofa so I figured o wow this is this. I have a sofa but I can do with this one. So I messaged the person and they immediately asked if I was interested and I said yes and I asked where they were located and they said Placencia.”
But, further interactions with the seller only raised red flags for this potential buyer.
Voice of: Ladyville Resident
“Supposedly it was a young lady I was talking to and she said I can have my husband, text not talking, I can have my husband bring it for you. I said, could you please ask how much he would charge me to bring it from Placencia and she said I will get back to you. She messaged fifty dollars that was the first red flag, fifty dollars from Placencia.”
The seller insisted that this potential buyer deposit fifty percent of the fourteen hundred dollar price tag placed on the item. She informed the seller that she had cash only but, that she would send two hundred dollars to hold the item. The purported husband of the woman she first interacted with called her the following day.
Voice of: Ladyville Resident
“Now we were talking from a cell phone, he started to call me and said he is the husband of the young lady I was talking to. He said he would get somebody from Belize city to come to me for the money. I said ok, but I want a receipt. He took a picture of the receipt he wrote, with my name and the money. He took a picture of it. I said ok. And within half hour the run man came to my house in Ladyville. The first thing that set me, the first thing the run man did was pull out the same receipt that the run man made in Placencia, little bit more than half hour ago. So I put back my money in my pocket, took the receipt and asked where he get the receipt. He said, oh the man from Belize City gave me. I said which man, the man you are suppose to send something for.”
Pretending that she was ignorant of the red flags, she called back the number and the purported seller informed her that he was still in Placencia. She then informed him that her husband is a police officer in Placencia and that she would send him to collect the item and make the payment. She says, the accounts she was interacting were immediately deleted from Facebook. The purported seller used the identities of two individuals, Nailea Nunez and Howard Casey, without their knowledge. Even though she avoided this scam, one woman fell victim and lost fourteen hundred dollars. Police, with the help of their Cybercrime Unit, were able to track down the purported scammer.
Osmond Mortis
Superintendent Osmond Mortis, Head of Cybercrime Unit
“The first step is making a report, statements will record and we will be gathering the evidence, who is involved, the method that was used and so forth. The first step is making a report. No amount is too small and we will be looking into every matter.”
According to Superintendent Osmond Mortis, there has been an increase in reports of online sales scams. He says potential online buyers need to act with increased caution.
Superintendent Osmond Mortis
“Not everything electronic is good. There are some good people doing legitimate business on social media and there are a few out there who are making bad. The good suffer for the bad. As the saying goes, buyer beware. You have to make sure that when you are spending your money that the money is going where it is suppose to go and that you are getting that product for the money that you are spending. As a lot of people in Belize are not aware, there is a Cybercrime Act and the penalties are no joke.”
We also spoke with Attorney Richard “Dickie” Bradley, who implored citizens to protect their personal information so as to avoid being named in these kinds of online sales scams.
Richard “Dickie” Bradley
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, Attorney
“You need to protect yourself. You can’t mek people the have access to your pins, to your accounts, to your information which can be used against you. I was shocked to find out, that, at two courts they want people to bring and show their bank account if they are going to be allowed to sign bail for a citizen. Now if you give them your bank account, you don’t know what will happen. This is your information, you know what that is? Fortunately the law in Belize is being brought up to speed in terms of a lot of these matters here. As a victim is a crime has been committed against you, if you have been duped, obtaining properly by deception, hurry go and make a report to the police and secondly shut down everything that is out there and then don’t let it happen again. There is a phrase, if a man deceives me once, shame on him, if he deceives me again, I am the jack a…”
On Monday, the case of the Bladen Twelve – that is, the twelve men, including four policemen who are linked to the landing of a drug plane on the Southern Highway back in November of 2021 – was transferred to another building. The matter was moved at the eleventh hour from the Magistrates’ Court building on Coney Drive to the Charles Bartlett Hyde building on Mahogany Street. The reason for the transfer was space issues. As defense attorney for several of the men, Dickie Bradley explained, the Coney Drive building is just not big enough to accommodate twelve defendants, their team of defense attorneys, the prosecutors and the magistrate. But, in the transfer of the matter to Mahogany Street, two oversights occurred. Media coverage was not given any consideration; hence, it became a logistical problem when reporters arrived at the location, as the building also houses the Belize Family Court. That court is closed to media personnel because of the sensitive nature of family court matters that oftentimes involve children. So, without prior notification and permission, the media was not allowed inside. Bradley told News Five that it was never the intention to shut out news reporters from the Bladen drug plane trial.
Dickie Bradley, Attorney at Law
“Towards the end of last week, the Magistrates’ Court was able to secure the use of the upstairs flat at what is the Charles Bartlett Hyde building. So we ourselves only knew at last minute, so the media would not have known. And I don’t want to say what I think, but I know for a fact that at the end of yesterday’s morning proceedings, it was brought to the attention of the Senior Magistrate, Baja Shoman that the media had been barred from attending the court, and her immediate response was that court trials in this country, by law, are open to the public, which happens to not only include the media, the media has a special protection under the Constitution that you all have a right to obtain information and to disseminate information. There are words of that effect in the Constitution of Belize, so the media is especially to be allowed. So that was the first thing. And as I said, I got no instruction that the media are barred and the media have every right to come.”
Marion Ali
“Even though the conditions with the space issues and all of that did not provide for us to be…”
Dickie Bradley
“Well, that was a separate excuse, reason because she would have sent for chairs to accommodate the media. That’s how high a regard she would have for – as a magistrate, as a judge. As somebody in the legal profession, she knows that the media has an important role to play. Otherwise, second-hand information. and yerisoh and sh—shu-shu will end up ruling the airwaves. So let the media come on here and see for themselves. So that was her first response, which of course is supported by the chief justice and the chief magistrate of the country.
The matter has been resolved. It is my understanding that the formal word has been handed out by the chief magistrate that the media is to be allowed to attend.”
