The sentence is to run concurrently with 15 years for aggravated burglary

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Sept. 24, 2012

Rudolph Smith, 36, aka “Tubba,” was found guilty of aggravated burglary and aggravated assault of an indecent nature against a girl, 15, in the court of Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith, who sentenced him to 15 years for the aggravated burglary and 3 years for the aggravated assault.

The Chief Magistrate said that the sentences were to run concurrently, so Smith will serve 15 years total.

The incident occurred around 4:25 in the morning of July 23, 2011, at a wooden house in Hattieville, located between Miles 16 and 17 on the Western Highway.

The prosecution called 6 witnesses, including the victim, her two siblings, her mother, the arresting officer and the police sergeant at CIB who conducted the identification parade.

The victim testified that she was in bed asleep when she was awakened by someone on top of her, who held a knife to her throat and began to fondle her private parts.

She said that the person demanded that she take off her pants, but she refused.

She told the court that one of her siblings awoke, got up and turned on the light, and that was when she recognized that her assailant was a man she knows as “Tubba.”

The victim said that she and her sister screamed for her mother, and Tubba fled.

Both siblings of the victim testified that they saw Tubba in their bedroom. The victim and her siblings testified that they identified Tubba as the culprit in an identification parade.

The children’s mother also testified that she saw Tubba fleeing from the house.

Smith testified. He claimed that he passed by the house and saw the victim climbing into the house through a window.

Smith called his sister as a witness, but her testimony did not help his case because the prosecutor, Sgt. Egbert Castillo, suggested to her that she was asleep at the time, and she agreed.

Smith has another case of a similar nature, for which trial is pending.