Mother and Son Burned Alive After Her Abusive Ex is Freed on Bail

Last night, we brought you a heartbreaking story out of San Felipe Village, the tragic deaths of a mother and her young son. Tonight, that grief is turning into outrage and deep concern. Why? Because this marks the second deadly case of domestic violence in just one week. In the case of Angelita Magaña and her six-year-old son, Tishan Godoy, the Orange Walk community is asking: could more have been done? Did the courts or the police miss a chance to protect them? News Five’s Paul Lopez takes a closer look at the growing questions and the urgent calls for accountability in the following report.

 

Paul Lopez, Reporting

Thirty-five-year-old Angelita Magana and her six-year-old son, Tishan Godoy, are the latest victims of domestic violence in Belize. They were both burnt to death inside their home in San Felipe Village on Monday morning. The culprit has been identified as Magana’s ex-common law husband, Francisco Godoy, who is also the father of young Tishan. Her teenage daughter remains hospitalized, fighting for her life. Perhaps the most heartbreaking part is that Angelita Magaña feared this might happen, and she wasn’t wrong.

 

Just last Thursday, Godoy was granted bail by the High Court. He’d been behind bars since April, accused of domestic violence against Angelita Magaña. But within days of walking free, he tracked her down, broke into her home, and threatened to kill her if she didn’t take him back. Angelita had already moved on. She knew exactly what he was capable of, she’d lived through physical and sexual abuse before. And she feared, with good reason, that this time he might actually follow through on his threats. So, Magana uprooted her family and moved to San Felipe Village with her common-law husband. On Friday, Angelita Magaña went to court, desperate to get a restraining order against Francisco Godoy. But it was late in the day, and she was told to come back on Monday. She never got that chance. Before she could return, Godoy found her and the children. He broke into their home, doused them with gasoline, and set the house on fire. In that horrifying act, two innocent lives were taken. So, did the system fail Magana and her children by granting Godoy bail?

 

ASP Stacy Smith, Staff Officer

“At the time that he went to court on Thursday, he was remanded from April up until recent times so I don’t believe that steps would have been made to have his high court bail revoked given that he was already remanded for another incident.”

 

She tried to do the right thing by going to court for a restraining order, but how could she have known that time wasn’t on her side, and that her next best chance at protection might’ve been the police?

 

ASP Stacy Smith

“In a situation where there exists a level of fear from a woman, the prudent thing would be to report it to the station and intervention would be done by the part of the police officers.”

 

Minister of Human Development, Thea Garcia-Ramirez, knows the pain of domestic violence firsthand, she’s a survivor herself. She addressed the horrors of this incident.

 

Thea Garcia Ramirez, Minister of Human Develop

“As a mother myself I cannot fathom what went through that parent’s mind when he throwed gasoline on a children, on a woman and lit them on fire.  And it sounds horrific and it is and I think that we have to face the facts. I know and I see social media comments that the system is failing that the police is failing, that the judiciary is failing, that the ministry is failing and I will be honest with you that we are all failing, society is failing. We are all included, because of the government we represent the people. These are all people in our society, the magistrates, the High Court judges, we are one society. So, Belize is failing to protect its women and Belize is failing to protect its children.”

 

Garcia admits that there are systemic failures when it comes to protecting women and children. But she goes beyond that to say that the responsibility rest on the shoulders of society as a collective.

 

Thea Garcia Ramirez

“I have to take responsibility for what is done or not done at the ministry because each one of us has a part to play, each one of us has a responsibility to call it out, to report it. If you have to report it a thousand times then report it a thousand times. If we must report it a million times then we must report it a million times.”

It’s one thing to report domestic violence. But what happens when the system meant to protect you moves too slowly, or doesn’t move at all? Domestic violence victims often complain that the police are of little or no help in these instances.

 

Thea Garcia Ramirez

“I would say that is accurate and I am not going to come here and lie and make excuses. I would say that is accurate and as I said before, who we are dealing with, officers, the system, is manned by their own biases, people who take those biases to work, who cant separate their professional lives from their personal beliefs, because we all have personal beliefs and they influence the way we go about performing our duties.”

 

The murder of Angelita Magaña and her six-year-old son struck a deeply personal chord for Body 2000 owner and trainer, Mark Neal. He’s still grieving the loss of someone close to him, taken under similarly tragic circumstances. Twenty-six-year-old Keira Gentle was shot to death inside her mother’s apartment. Authorities believe that Gentle’s ex-boyfriend, Harrison Arnold, pulled the trigger, before turning the weapon on himself.

 

Mark Neal, Owner/Trainer, Body 2000

“I also want to tell the married and the unmarried, you don’t own nobody. Nobody belongs to you. If somebody wants to walk away, let them walk away. It is a relationship. You are not going to penalize me if I have a change of mind within this relationship. And that is how it is supposed to go. People  take it to the point where they become the executioner and decided they want to take people lives whatever. Look at what just happened in Orange Walk. It has become ridiculous that people have decided to make it a trend to take somebody’s life.”

 

It’s a sad reminder of how quickly a domestic dispute can spiral into tragedy. And in the case of San Felipe Village, did the system fail this family when they needed help the most? Reporting for News Five, I am Paul Lopez.