Bain was convicted of the manslaughter of Fortunato Chun, a security officer at Belize Water Services
Fabian Bain, also known as Carlos Escalante, was convicted of manslaughter after a jury of 12 deliberated for over four hours about his fate.
Bain was accused of the November 23, 2006 murder of Fortunato Chun, a security officer of Belize Water Services Limited.
Attorney Sheneiza Smith of the DPP’s office prosecuted the case, along with Kileru Awich and Javier Chan. They called several witnesses to the stand, including Kenrick Reneau, who was with the accused at the time of the murder.
Reneau, who turned Crown witness, had to be treated as a hostile witness when he took the stand, because he told the court that he didn’t know Bain and that he never gave the police any statement on what had transpired that day.
In the statement he had initially given to police, he had told them that they had planned the attack on Chun in order to steal his service-issued firearm. They even studied his schedule and knew what time he would have started his shift that day.
After the Crown presented its case, Bain, who was represented by attorney Ernest Staine, took the stand and testified that he was nowhere around BWS when the shooting occurred, and knew nothing about it.
But after hearing all the evidence, the jury returned late this evening with a unanimous not guilty verdict for murder, but a unanimous guilty verdict for the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Bain, through his lawyer, decided to forego the time granted to him to present a mitigation plea or present witnesses to speak well of his character, and asked Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez to sentence him immediately.
Justice Gonzalez took a few moments before he addressed Bain, then told him that since he gave no mitigating plea, there was no mitigating factor to consider, only the aggravating factor that he shot and killed Chun.
The judge then passed down a 20-year sentence to Bain, and when Bain asked the court if his time spent on remand, 7 years, would be subtracted, a stern “no” was the judge’s reply to him.