Category: Trials

In October 2022, a 17-year-old high school student claimed she was raped after a night out at Eruption Night Club. She reported to the police that she was found partially clothed in an abandoned vehicle near the club. Michael Flowers, 27, was charged with the crime. However, after spending a night in lockup for being late to court, Flowers was freed this morning. The case against him was dropped because the main witness, the victim, did not want to testify. Flowers had been dealing with this serious charge for over two years. He was initially granted $10,000 bail and was set to stand trial on February 10, 2025. But when he showed up late, he was remanded overnight. Today, he was relieved to hear the case was discontinued. Police investigations revealed that the victim had attended a wake and then went to the club, where she lost consciousness. She woke up in a vehicle, wearing only her underwear. A neighbor had seen a man and a woman walking on the highway and recognized the man as Michael Flowers. A medical exam confirmed the assault, leading to Flowers’ charge. Conviction for rape can result in a minimum of 8 years to life imprisonment. Flowers was represented by attorney Ronell Gonzalez.

At 9:16 a.m., in the courtroom of Justice Candace Nanton, Kyle Aswan Zetina was found guilty of three counts of murder in the brutal execution-style deaths of Excelsior High School Vice Principal, forty-four-year-old Alarice Andrewin, and her two friends, thirty-nine-year-old Vidal Antonio Yuman and nineteen-year-old Guatemalan national Maria Lucas. The tragic incident occurred at Andrewin’s home at Mile 10 1/2 on the George Price Highway on June third, 2019. Justice Nanton did not elaborate on how she reached her verdicts, stating she would provide her detailed decision in writing at a later date. When she announced the guilty verdicts, Zetina showed no visible reaction. Throughout the trial, which began in June 2024, Zetina chose to remain silent and offered no defense. Initially charged with twenty-five-year-old Shawn Flores, Zetina faced the trial alone after Flores was acquitted on June twenty-eighth, 2024, due to insufficient evidence linking him to the murders. The remaining evidence, including Zetina’s caution statement and testimonies from three hostile witnesses, pointed directly to Zetina. The prosecution was led by Crown Counsel Sheneiza Smith, while Zetina was defended by attorney Norman Rodriguez. Sentencing for Zetina has yet to be announced. Justice Nanton has ordered several reports, including a psychiatric evaluation, a social report, three victim impact statements, an antecedent history of Zetina, and a report from the Kolbe Foundation, before finalizing the sentence.

 

In three months, the kidnapping and blackmail trial against William ‘Danny’ Mason and Belmopan resident Ryan Rhaburn will begin in the High Court before Justice Nigel Pilgrim. The trial, set to start on April twenty-ninth and conclude by May ninth, 2025, will be heard by a jury of nine, yet to be selected. This morning, Mason and Rhaburn appeared for their Case Management Conference in Justice Pilgrim’s courtroom, where the trial date was confirmed. Mason’s legal team, led by Trinidadian attorney Peter Taylor, and Rhaburn’s defense, represented by Senior Counsel Simeon Sampson and attorney Ian Gray, were present. During the CMC, Gray announced he would call an alibi witness for Rhaburn, while Taylor stated Mason would call three. Peter Taylor, who was recently called to the bar, expressed confidence in his team, which includes Senior Research Officer Eustace Warner and Instructing Attorney Nehanda Samuels. This trial follows a mistrial in July 2024, where the court rejected a defense request to move the trial from Belmopan to Belize City. Mason and Rhaburn face charges for the kidnapping of Mennonite couple Lloyd and Rosey Friesen on May thirty-first, 2016, with Mason also charged with blackmail. Allegedly, they detained the Friesens by force and demanded two thousand, five hundred dollars weekly for protection. While Rhaburn is out on bail, Mason remains in the Belize Central Prison, serving a life sentence for the beheading of Pastor Llewellyn Lucas.

 

Tonight, we bring you a shocking story involving two Belize City men, Oliver Sutherland, also known as ‘Spooner,’ and Erlin Smith. Back in March 2021, they kidnapped a fifteen-year-old boy and subjected him to horrific torture. They stood on his hand, cut off a piece of his pinky finger, hit him with a broom, and shocked him multiple times in the chest. The mastermind behind this cruelty demanded to know who sent the boy to find him, keeping the minor captive for hours. This morning, Sutherland and Smith appeared before Justice Derick Sylvester in the High Court after entering a plea bargain. They pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of wounding, having initially faced charges of kidnapping and wounding. The judge considered the new sentencing guidelines and the facts of the case, which included the brutal details of their actions. On March thirteenth, 2021, the duo intentionally and unlawfully wounded the minor, kicking him in the stomach, punching him in the face, and burning him with hot wax. The entire ordeal was live-streamed on Facebook until a knock on the door allowed the boy to escape. He was later treated at K.H.M.H. for multiple injuries. The police investigation led to the arrest of Sutherland and Smith on March fourteenth, 2021. Initially charged with kidnapping, they were later also charged with wounding based on directives from the DPP’s office. The judge considered the aggravating and mitigating factors, including the young age of the victim and the severity of the violence. Although the victim has since died from an unrelated incident, the court did not overlook the gravity of what the men did. The judge sentenced Sutherland to a two-year suspended sentence, meaning he must stay out of trouble for six months or face imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay two thousand, five hundred dollars in compensation to the victim’s father. Both men, having served time on remand, walked out of court as free men and shared positive messages for the youth of Belize.

 

Tonight, twenty-six-year-old Clifton Percival Robinson is on remand at the Belize Central Prison, awaiting sentencing. Justice Nigel Pilgrim accepted Robinson’s guilty plea for the lesser charge of wounding, revoked his bail, and remanded him to prison until his sentencing on February fourth, 2025. Robinson’s co-accused, Angel Matura, who was charged with him for attempted murder back in 2022, walked free after the charge was dropped due to Robinson’s guilty plea. The charges stemmed from a shooting incident in March 2022 at Matura’s yard, where Albert Reid was injured by a sawed-off shotgun, suffering wounds to his inner thigh and foot. Today, Robinson, following his attorney Norman Rodriguez’s advice, entered a plea bargain and took responsibility for his actions. However, he was taken aback when his bail was revoked. Rodriguez argued that Robinson, who had been on bail for over a year and consistently attended his court hearings, was not a flight risk. But Justice Pilgrim saw it differently, stating that in the interest of public safety, bail is revoked when someone admits to a violent offense, especially involving a firearm. On January twentieth, 2025, Robinson expressed his desire to enter a plea bargain with the crown, which was represented today by Crown Counsel Glenfield Dennison.

 

Norman Rodriguez, Attorney at Law

“The allegation is that he shot someone or fired shots at someone and that person was injured in the lower part of his body and the result of that, the police did its investigation and charged him. Clifton Robinson was not really my client. I accepted his case as a friend of the court. So I was there for that part of the plea bargaining process, just as an attorney sitting in. And now I am assisting him with his mitigation and sentencing. I actually represented the other court charged Angel Matura, but Clifton Robinson opted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of wounding and different judges have different approach, but the judge will always justify by  quoting the law and this judge was on point when he  declared that he had the discretion to revoke his bail, which he did and remand him until sentencing. The court that did indicate that the act of revoking his bail is not an indication of how the court will sentence him.”

The trial of interdicted Sergeant of Police Walton Patrick Banner, thirty-six, kicked off today in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court before a senior magistrate. Sergeant Banner, a resident of Lemonal Village and a member of the Belize Police Department, is accused of obstructing a police officer during an arrest. Allegedly, on April first, 2024, at the Castleton Horse Track in Burrell Boom Village, he prevented Corporal Shane Cabral from arresting Julian Reynolds. The trial began around ten o’clock this morning, with Prosecutor Alifah Elrington calling two of her five witnesses. The trial adjourned at noon and resumed at two p.m. Sergeant Banner is represented by attorney Leeroy Banner. This morning, witnesses PC Mendez and PC Travis Zuniga, part of the Special Patrol Union (S.P.U.) team, testified. PC Mendez recounted that after a horse race, he and his team were dispersing a crowd when they were alerted to a fight in the parking lot. They saw several men fighting and throwing objects. Mendez described seeing a man in a green t-shirt and blue jeans swinging a machete, injuring another man. Corporal Shane Cabral fired a warning shot, causing the crowd to scatter. The officers detained the man with the machete. Mendez testified that while escorting the detainee, he heard someone shout, “Dah you cause all ah dis. You are a Sergeant of Police. You should know better.” He identified the man as Sergeant Banner, who was being boisterous and using insulting words, causing a group of females to surround the police mobile, hindering their duties. The detained individuals were eventually taken to the Ladyville Police Station. Under cross-examination, attorney Banner suggested that PC Zuniga fabricated his testimony, which Zuniga denied. This afternoon, PC Christian Reyes and Corporal Shane Cabral also testified. The prosecution has one more witness to call, and the trial will continue Thursday, January twenty-third, 2025.

Tonight, a man who claims to be a beggar and unable to work is behind bars after pleading guilty to possessing a small amount of crack cocaine. The man, forty-eight-year-old Kenroy Emmanuel Fisher from Kelly Street, Belize City, initially told the court he was twenty-nine years old. However, court records show that he is actually forty-eight and seems to have trouble remembering his own age and birth year. Fisher, who was unrepresented, appeared before Chief Magistrate Jayani Wegodapola and faced a single charge of possession of a controlled drug. On Monday, December thirtieth, 2024, he was found with a tiny amount of crack cocaine on Castle Street, Belize City. The quantity was so small that it didn’t even register on the scale. Despite this, Fisher pleaded guilty. He explained that he has never worked a day in his life and survives by begging. Given his inability to pay a fine, the Chief Magistrate opted not to impose a non-custodial sentence or a fine. Instead, Fisher was sentenced to one month in prison.