Sunday, March 28, 2010
The Belize Times
13
Family of Slaughtered Police Officer says he was Murdered
Police Sergeant Paulino Reyes, who shot and killed Corporal Gavin Sanchez early last Thursday morning, is on administrative leave. While that is not exactly interdiction, it certainly speaks volumes of the suspicion that hovers over his head, primarily because of the number of bullets he fired into his fellow officer, coupled with a string of irregular and unexplained events at the crime scene. The post mortem revealed that Sanchez was shot a total of nine times. Two bullets entered his head as well and he died from trauma due to severe head injuries. From all accounts, Sanchez had hurled death threats at Reyes after a previous incident at the Wet Willy's Bar on the Beachfront. That incident took place at around 11:45 last Wednesday night when Reyes was working special duty. He reported that while doing patrol at the bar he saw the two BDF soldiers and another police officer embroiled in a confrontation with Sanchez. With their help, Reyes took Sanchez outside and later to the San Pedro Police Station where Sanchez became unruly and threatened Reyes in front of other officers who wrote their accounts of
it. The incident where he was shot happened almost three hours later after Reyes had returned to the bar to complete his duty and then went back to the station. Somewhere upon his return, Reyes reportedly received word that Sanchez was waiting for him behind the station and that was when he asked the two soldiers to accompany him to the barrack room. But where the grey area falls is why Sanchez was never detained for the threatening words or for the conflict at the bar. And also, police later said that a .prohibited 45 pistol
The Court of Appeal last Friday upheld a 12 year sentence imposed on forty year old Levi Jackson in May of 2009. Jackson was sentenced by the Supreme Court
in May of 2009 after one of his former co-workers at Old Belize testified that he beat and raped her. The woman had been waiting at the roadside on the Western
Gavin Sanchez
Paulino Reyes
was found beside his body. Officer Commanding the Eastern Division, Superintendent David Henderson told the media that there will be two investigations running parallel to each other: a criminal one and an internal one. The Director of Public Prosecutions will shortly begin to review the case file and is expected to give a determination on whether Sergeant Reyes will be criminally charged. But the family is irate at the circumstances and the number of bullets which led to their loved one’s
death. His wife, Taralee Sanchez feels that even if he was drunk and disorderly he did not deserve to be fatally shot, much less the number of times he was. If the name Cpl Gavin Sanchez raises your brows it ought to. Sanchez was the officer who had shot a fisherman on Iguana Street Extension on April 30th, 2008. Sanchez, who was off-duty at the time, reported that he was heading to his house at around 12:30 that morning when a man on a bicycle shouted at him. Sanchez said he was startled and ran into the drain and while trying to get his car out, the man returned to the scene with a handgun. This was when Sanchez claimed he pulled his gun and shot the man in self defense. That man, identified as 21 year old Lionel Sampson, was shot in the left leg and a finger on his right hand. Witnesses at the time claimed that Sanchez was drunk and after he ran his car into the drain, came out of the vehicle and opened fire on Sampson. They said Sampson tried to run and even hid under a car but when he didn’t want to come out at Sanchez's orders, the off-duty Sanchez shot him.
Court of Appeal Upholds Rape Sentence
Levi Jackson
Highway in front of her workplace when Jackson drove up in his car and offered her a lift. She had told the Court that she accepted the offer because she had worked with Jackson. But he had different plans once she got inside the vehicle because he drove past her home at Mile eight and took her all the way to a feeder road in Hattieville where he demanded that she have sex with him. When she refused, he beat her before he raped her. Jackson had claimed innocence at his trial, saying the woman willingly had sex with him, but he did not convince the jury. Throughout his trial and appeal Jackson displayed a level of reproach, telling the Court that he should serve the time for the rape.
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Meanwhile, nineteen year old Kevin Santos was given a second shot at a trial after his guilty verdict and life sentence was quashed and a retrial was ordered. Santos was sentenced to life in prison on September 9, 2009 after a jury deliberated for almost three hours before finding him guilty. He was awaiting an appeal after he was found guilty of the murder of Chris Rosales, who was walking on Burns Avenue in San Ignacio en route to his house on Christmas Eve of 2006 when a group of youths attacked him and his friends because of the color of his shirt. During the confrontation someone stabbed Rosales in the back and chest, killing him. Justin Rodriguez was injured on the right arm and another youth, Kennylee Gonzalez, was also stabbed in the stomach. Joining Santos on the retrial list is thirty-three year old Jose Hueso, a Guatemalan national who was spending eight years for committing carnal knowledge with a 12 year old girl. The girl reported to Belmopan Police that Hueso had sexual intercourse with her on two different occasions in January of 2006. A medical examination later revealed that the girl had indeed been carnally known and Hueso was found guilty of the crime.
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