Missing Witness Derails High-Profile Murder Trial

The murder case against two Belize City men ended before the trial could begin, not because a court cleared them, but because prosecutors could not find their main witness. Twenty-eight-year-old Ulide Allen and twenty-seven-year-old Marquis Conorquie appeared before High Court Justice Nigel Pilgrim expecting to stand trial for the June 2024 murder of Stanley Jerome Moore and the attempted murder of Joshua Gillett. Instead, the Crown entered a nolle prosequi and discontinued the case after Gillett, the surviving shooting victim and key witness, could not be located. Justice Pilgrim made it clear that the decision does not amount to an acquittal. Prosecutors can charge the men again if they later secure the evidence needed to take the case to trial. Allen was free to leave the court, but Conorquie returned to the Belize Central Prison, where he is serving a sentence of one year and five months for armed robbery while awaiting the hearing of his appeal. The murder case arose from a deadly shooting on June twenty-third, 2024. Police say Gillett was driving a BMW along Mahogany Street Extension with thirty-two-year-old Moore in the passenger seat when two men pulled alongside them on a motorcycle near Amandala Drive. The passenger on the motorcycle allegedly opened fire before the pair escaped. Moore died from his injuries, while Gillett survived after receiving treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital. Both accused men previously received bail after the Crown could not begin the trial in July, but only Allen met the sixteen-thousand-dollar bail requirement. Conorquie remained behind bars because of his separate robbery conviction.

 

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