Jimmy Espat was in the Supreme Court of Justice Adolph Lucas this morning. He was sent from the Hattiville Prison to court today for sentencing after a jury found him guilty of raping a Canadian woman who was visiting Belize. Espat was found guilty by the nine-member jury last Friday, February 27. The seven women and two men deliberated for around three hours before returning the guilty verdict on the Benque Veijo Del Carmen resident.
The rape victim met Espat in a club in Santa Elena Town on the night of April 1, 2007. The woman told police that Espat invited her to visit the cemetery where his grandmother is buried, and that while at the cemetery he hit her in the face. After she fell to the ground, that was when he took advantage of her.
Espat, who was undefended in court, had given a statement from the prisoner’s dock. Before the jury went into the deliberation room, he read a lengthy statement that at times was loaded with sexual explicitness which Justice Lucas had to interrupt several times because of the graphic nature of the statement.
In his dock statement, Espat maintained that it was the woman who propositioned him; telling him that she liked having sex with black men and that she preferred rough sex. He described how when he entered the cemetery in the wee hours, the woman fell on her knees and performed oral sex on him for a few minutes.
According to him, they were both drinking a lot before the incident in the cemetery took place. He described in vivid details how he made love to the woman, who, after the lovemaking, got up and ran out of the cemetery while he was searching for his clothing in the dark.
At today’s sentencing hearing, Espat brought three persons from the Cayo District who spoke well of him, telling the court that they know him and that he has always been a law abiding citizen. Edgar Rivas, 18, a farmer, told the court that Espat lives in his neighborhood and was “all right” with everybody. He worked and supported his two kids, Rivas said on Espat’s behalf.
Clifford Glenford Neal, 48, mechanic of Santa Elena Town, said that Jimmy Espat’s wife asked him to make the mitigation plea on her behalf. Neal said that he has known Espat for about twenty years. “I am sorry,” he told the court. “I wish I could have helped him more.”
Jacqueline Rodas, 33, housewife of Santa Elena New Area, said that Espat was always helping people out. He worked on her house and charged her a lot less than he should have.
When Justice Lucas asked him if there was anything that he wanted to say on his own behalf, Espat told the court that he never committed any crime in his life.
“I am innocent of the crime,” the convicted man said.
But Justice Lucas interrupted him, telling him that, “This is not the time for that.”
Lucas said that he listened to what the character witnesses had to say, and although they did not ask for leniency, he realized that they had meant to do so.
“You have given a bad name to Belize in the eyes of the victim and to others that she might tell her story to,” Justice Lucas told Espat.
After the brief lecture, he told Espat that he is sentencing him to ten years. The sentence is to run from February 27, 2009.