BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 18, 2015–Police Press Officer Raphael Martinez confirmed to Amandala this afternoon that Maurice Felix, 30, who was wanted by police, but who was able to elude arrest and went under the radar for more than a week, turned himself in around 5:00 o’clock this morning.
Felix was remanded to prison on charges of attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm. He was granted Supreme Court bail on Friday, June 5, but on that same day, Mark Gentle (Vernon), the person whom Felix is accused of shooting, succumbed to his gunshot injuries while undergoing treatment at Belize Medical Associates, where he was transferred from the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) Intensive Care Unit.
Felix was escorted to the Magistrate’s Court this morning by CIB officers, who handed him over to court police.
Senior Magistrate Sharon Fraser arraigned him on the upgraded charge of murder for “intentionally and unlawfully causing the death of Mark Gentle (Vernon) on June 5.”
In addition to the charge of murder for the death of Mark Gentle (Vernon), Felix and his younger brother, Emory Felix, are also facing a charge of attempted murder for allegedly attempting to take the life of Gentle’s mother, Pamela Cumberbatch.
Fraser also read over that charge which said: “That you and another, on May 25, attempted to murder Pamela Cumberbatch.”
“Alright, you already know that no plea will be taken, because this is an indictable matter,” Fraser told Felix.
He was remanded to prison until September 8, when he and his brother Emory will be brought back to court.
On the night of Monday, May 25, Gentle, his mother and his stepfather were seated outside of their home on Caesar Ridge Road, when a car pulled up in front of the house and two men sprayed a number of shots in their direction.
Mark Gentle was hit multiple times and was admitted to the KHMH is a critical state. Gentle’s stepfather, Calvin Cumberbatch, sustained a gunshot injury to his foot and was treated and released at the KHKH Emergency Room.
Surprisingly, police did not lay any charge against Maurice and Emory Felix for the injury suffered by Cumberbatch, but instead, charged them with the attempted murder of Cumberbatch’s wife Pamela, who did not suffer any injury from the bullets fired by the alleged shooters.
The Felix brothers had been accused of the April 10, 2006 murder of T-Street mechanic Mitchum Heredia, who was gunned down inside his yard just as he pulled up in his car.
In the first trial which ended with a guilty of murder verdict in the Supreme Court of Justice Adolph Lucas, the Felix brothers were sentenced to life in prison, but upon appeal, the conviction was overturned, their life sentence was quashed and a new trial was ordered.
The second trial ended in a hung jury. The third trial also ended in a hung jury.
After three trials, therefore, two in Belize City and one in the Northern Session of the Supreme Court, in Orange Walk, Maurice and Emory Felix were released from prison after spending almost eight years on remand, because the Director of Public Prosecution decided that it was impractical for the state to invest in trying the brothers a fourth time.
Since their release from prison, Maurice Felix was before the court on a charge of “professing to belong to a criminal gang.” He was remanded to prison and this morning told Magistrate Fraser that he had lost his employment as a consequence of going to prison on that charge.