Life Sentence Challenged in Tamales Vendor’s Murder Case

It’s a case that shocked Belize back in 2018, a hardworking tamales vendor brutally murdered while trying to make an honest living. Sixty-eight-year-old Martha Gonzales traveled every day from Orange Walk to Pomona Valley in Stann Creek to sell tamales, cheese, and clothes. But one routine trip turned deadly. Her body was later discovered in a latrine on the property of then twenty-one-year-old Christopher Bradley. Investigators say Gonzales was stabbed in the chest, wrapped in a tarp, and stuffed into that latrine. What followed was even more shocking. Bradley allegedly took her bucket of tamales home, fed his mother, and gave his girlfriend Gonzales’ chain as a gift. Bradley was convicted of murder in 2021 and sentenced to life in prison without parole for twenty-eight years. But today, he’s back in court, appealing both his conviction and sentence. His attorney argues key evidence, like the chain and blood found at Bradley’s home, should never have been considered. The Crown, however, says the sentence was fair and the evidence strong enough to uphold the guilty verdict. A panel of three judges heard arguments today, and we’ll tell you what happens in this high-profile appeal.