Pipersburgh and Robateau were convicted of quadruple murders after robbing Bowen and Bowen

Today, the Court of Appeal heard the case of Leslie Pipersburgh and Patrick Robateau, who were twice convicted of killing four people after robbing Bowen and Bowen on Slaughterhouse Road in 2002.

Pipersburgh and Robateau had been accused of robbing Bowen and Bowen Limited on Slaughterhouse Road, where both men had been employed. On June 18, 2002, the duo returned to the compound, ostensibly to turn in their sales for the day. But instead of handing the money over to the nighttime supervisor, Mr. Arthur Griffith, Pipersburgh allegedly lifted up his shirt and showed the manager a gun and told him they were taking the money.

Griffith was tied up in a bathroom and as the men left the building, they encountered Kevin Alvarez and Carl Ventura, two of the security guards on duty that night. Both of them were shot, but Ventura survived the shooting and was able to testify in the trial.

The two went on to shoot and kill Felix Mai, Cherry Tucker and David Flores, all in an attempt to elude police, leave the country and eventually reach the United States.

The first trial, which started in February 2004 and ended in March 2004, resulted with unanimous guilty verdicts on all four murder counts and an attempted murder charge for Ventura. The duo then appealed their sentence in April 2004, and were granted an appeal hearing in October. However, it was not until July of 2007 that the Appeal Court sent down its decision to dismiss the appeal, and affirmed their sentence.

In February 2008, the Privy Council quashed the murder convictions and sent the case back to the Appeal Court for a new trial. The following month, they were granted the retrial and were returned to the Belize Central Prison, but not to death row.

The second trial started in March 2011 and ended in April, with a jury returning for a second time with guilty verdicts, but on only two of the murder counts. Lawyers for Pipersburgh and Robateau made no-case submissions for the murders of Tucker and Flores, which were upheld by the trial judge.

Pipersburgh and Robateau were then given life sentences the following week, but again appealed the convictions, which were presented by attorneys Simeon Sampson and Bryan Neal, representatives for Robateau and Pipersburgh respectively.

Sampson based his appeal on the ground that the trial judge’s failure to exclude the evidence of Salvador Figueroa, the then Belizean Ambassador to Mexico, against his client was a material irregularity amounting to a miscarriage of justice.

Figueroa testified that when Robateau was captured, he confessed to him that he had committed the murders and the robbery.

Neal’s argument was based on the ground that the judge misdirected the jury, as there was no evidence that his client killed anyone. He admitted to robbing Bowen and Bowen, but he was not a part of anything else, and certainly not the murders.

In her response, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Cheryl Lynn Vidal, told the court that the judge’s rule did not apply to the ambassador, as he was not bound to inform Robateau of his rights. The ambassador was not charged with any duty and responsibility of investigating this matter, and therefore the judge gave adequate direction to the jury.

In response to Neal’s argument, she told the court that Pipersburgh and Robateau acted together for a common purpose – the act of killing to get away with the money. Pipersburgh had a gun; he attained the assurance of Griffith by showing him the gun; both men were observed at the Mexico/Belize border together, so they acted as one to accomplish a common goal.

After hearing the arguments put forward by the attorneys and the DPP, the judges thanked them and after deliberating for a few moments, they returned and dismissed the appeals and affirmed the sentences. They reserved their reasons for a later date which will be given in writing to the registrar.