Juan Novelo Acquitted in Girlfriend’s 2023 Killing

Juan Carlos Novelo is a free man. The High Court found him not guilty of murdering his common-law wife, Leslie Margarita Verde, nearly three years after her death shook Caye Caulker.

Justice Candace Nanton delivered the verdict, clearing Novelo of the single murder charge he had faced since his arraignment in November 2023. At 2:38 p.m., she told Novelo to stand, and a minute later announced the not-guilty finding. The judge did not lay out her reasoning in court, telling those present that a written judgment explaining the acquittal will follow at a later date.

Verde, a mother of two girls, was found motionless behind the front door of the home she shared with Novelo in the Bahia area of Caye Caulker in the early hours of November 4, 2023. She was rushed to the Caye Caulker Health Clinic, where she was pronounced dead within minutes.

Investigators initially had to work through what looked like a staged scene, after the murder location was allegedly altered to suggest Verde had hanged herself from a beam in her room. Sergeant Manuel Mai, the investigating officer, testified that he ruled out suicide because the area where her body was reportedly found showed no signs of disturbance, still dusty and untouched. His investigation concluded that foul play was involved.

A post-mortem found that Verde died of asphyxia from neck compression, citing injuries to the front and sides of her neck along with significant soft-tissue bruising and bleeding. It was established that the injuries were consistent with external force applied to the neck, and ruled out that they were self-inflicted or accidental, classifying the death a homicide.

During the trial, the Crown pointed to surveillance footage showing Novelo arriving at Verde’s home after she returned by bike that night, then leaving and returning more than once before her body was found. Verde’s daughter, who was 13 at the time and has since said she was still half-asleep, testified that she woke to see her stepfather shaking her mother’s motionless body, though her mother’s body was later found in a different spot than where she recalled seeing it. No one testified to actually witnessing Novelo inflict the injuries that killed Verde, and the defence argued that gap was fatal to the Crown’s case.

Defence attorney Leeroy Banner told the court his client did not kill Verde, that she was alive when he left the house that morning, and that her family had wrongly assumed his guilt simply because of his relationship to her. He argued the Crown’s evidence fell short of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

Speaking outside the courthouse after the verdict, Novelo maintained his innocence and said he was relieved. “It feels good, because I never killed my common-law wife,” he said, adding that he wanted Verde’s family to know he did not do what they believe he did.