Amandala learned today that Alberto Ara, 31, accused of the October 3, 2006 murders of a family of six and arson at their home in Blackman Eddy, Cayo District, was acquitted of six counts of murder and arson charges in the Belmopan Supreme Court after a no-case submission made yesterday, Tuesday.
The jury of 12 was directed to find Ara not guilty after the submission made by his attorney, Senior Counsel, Simeon Sampson, was upheld by trial judge Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez around 10 this morning. Prosecuting for the Crown was Senior Crown Counsel, Cecil Ramirez.
Ara, originally of Ontario, Cayo, was accused of causing the deaths of Belizean-born Elias Mayen Ayala, 28, and his pregnant common-law wife Maria Suchite, a Guatemalan, and their four children, Yanira, 7; Alex, 6; Marco Antonio, 4; and Victor, 2.
According to Sampson in an interview with Amandala today, Ara allegedly confessed to police after being held for over three hours, and then promised by a senior officer that if he gave them a statement, he would be freed.
In court, Ara said that he gave the statement because he believed this officer’s claims.
However, the case investigator in his testimony denied under oath that any such promise was made to Ara. The officer involved was not called to testify, Sampson told us.
The Mayen family had only just moved into the house the previous Sunday, and according to police at the time, Ara was one of their first visitors. He and Elias Mayen got drunk that day and on the Monday, and Ara called on Mayen again the next day, Tuesday, around 2:00 p.m., but he was not at home and Ara supposedly decided to wait for him there.
After a brief argument with his wife when he got home about Ara being there, Elias Mayen and Alberto Ara got drunk together and by 11:00 p.m. went inside the house where Mayen again asked Ara why he came to his house when he was not there. The argument that followed resulted in Mayen grabbing a machete and Ara a spear gun lying nearby.
Ara then allegedly tried to shoot Mayen but missed and hit Suchite instead, knocking her to the floor. Mayen came at him with the machete and Ara hit him with the gun, causing him to fall and drop the machete, which Ara picked up and chopped him in the head.
At the same time, reportedly, a candle being used for light at the residence fell over and the house quickly began to burn. Ara left and escaped down to the riverside and crossed over on a log, leaving the Mayens inside the burning home.
Unable to escape due to their injuries and helpless to get to and save their sleeping children, the entire family perished in the flames. When police responded around 12:30 a.m., all they found were the remains of the various family members inside the burnt-down structure.
(Amandala reported at the time that apart from saying that the fire started in front of the house, Fire Service officials were unable to give a determination of the cause of the fire.)
Similar attacks had occurred in the same general area in the previous few months. At the time, Ara was investigated as a suspect in one of these cases as well.
However, family members of Mayen told Amandala at the time that they believed their brother and son’s death stemmed from an alleged misunderstanding with another Blackman Eddy resident over a bicycle.