The night of Friday, February 8, 2008 was one of the bloodiest in the history of a crime-weary Belize City. On that night, two persons lost their lives in separate incidents and a number of others had to be rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital Emergency Room for treatment after various shooting and stabbing incidents around the City.
In the most high profile of that tragic weekend’s incidents, police eventually arrested and charged two men for what became known as the Putt Putt shooting, in which nine persons were injured and Deandra Zetina, 19, was killed.
Jason King and Charles Moss were charged with the murder of Zetina and the attempted murder of the nine injured persons.
Moss and King were brought to court this morning from the Hattieville Prison, to begin a Preliminary Inquiry (PI) that has been adjourned some thirteen times since they were arraigned more than a year now.
Last year December, Chief Magistrate, Margaret Gabb-McKenzie, ordered the prosecutor to give the defense side disclosure. In PI cases, disclosure is normally given at least two weeks before the hearing commences.
But the Magistrate’s order was never carried out, and this morning, the Chief Magistrate struck out the Preliminary Inquiry in the case against the two accused men.
This means that Moss and King were free to go home from court. But, it did not quite go like that. Once the two men emerged from the courtroom, plainclothes police officers were waiting to arrest them and take them back into custody.
It is not known on what authority or on whose instructions the police officers acted, since there was, technically and legally speaking, no papers to re-arrest the two accused men.
On the morning of February 9, 2008, around 2:30, a number of party-goers who were inside the Putt Putt Bar on Newtown Barracks, had a terrible experience, when gunmen emerged from the bushes behind the club and began opening fire at the crowd inside the club.
Moss and King were fingered and eventually charged for the deadly shooting.
Moreover, when police arrested King, they found him carrying a loaded 9mm pistol, so he was additionally charged for kept ammunition without a gun license.
It is expected that the two men will be brought back to court and charged with the same charges, one count of murder, nine counts of attempted murder, and King will have his ammunition charge reinstated.
Senior Counsel, Ellis Arnold, is defending Charles Moss.