BELIZE CITY–Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith found a businessman guilty of aggravated assault with a firearm and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.

In April 2013, Enfield Reyes, 34, was charged with the aggravated assault after his wife reported to police that he pulled his licensed firearm at her during a domestic dispute at their King Street home.

Bernadette Reyes, 30, in her testimony at the trial, told the court that on the day of the incident, she had made several attempts to leave the house, but her husband prevented her from doing so by blocking the doorway.

Finally, Bernadette was allowed to leave the house, but as she was doing so, Reyes pulled out his licensed .9mm handgun, and as she walked toward the gate, she heard a loud bang, and felt stings on her legs from the dirt that the bullet scattered.

When she looked up, she testified, she saw Reyes standing on the verandah with the firearm in his hand, and he pointed the gun at her.

At his arraignment last year, Reyes was represented by Ellis Arnold, S.C.

Reyes represented himself at his trial, however. In his defense, Reyes told the court that he heard a commotion in the back of the yard, and that when he went to the front door with his gun, he saw someone going through the front gate.

In finding him guilty, the Chief Magistrate told Reyes that he went to court with nothing but a fairy-tale and that he fired the gun, although the couple’s two-year-old daughter was inside the house when the incident unfolded.

The maximum prison sentence for aggravated assault is two years.