Amandala has confirmed that two of the “Las Vegas Four”, four men charged and later convicted in a Chetumal court with attempting to murder a Mexican national and attempting to import guns into Mexico a year and a half ago, have been released from jail in Chetumal, Quintana Roo, Mexico.
George Hardie, Jr., general manager of Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, and son of the owner, George Hardie, Sr., and David Gomez, employed there as a security guard, are currently in the custody of Mexican Immigration being processed and prepared for a long-awaited return home.
A tribunal of Mexican federal appeals court judges based in Cancun this week issued a ruling that there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute Hardie, Jr., and Gomez on their charges, for which they had been convicted in a lower court in May and sentenced respectively to 10 years and six months, and seven years and six months, in a Mexican jail.
Their companions, Curlin Thompson and Martin Miller, remain in jail, also sentenced to 10-½ years imprisonment.
The charges stemmed from a widely reported incident at the casino in July of 2008, in which Mexicans Edwin and Luis Navarro were accused of behaving in a disorderly fashion at the casino and ordered off the premises, but returned later that night, armed, and got into a shootout with Miller, Thompson and Gomez before fleeing.
The guards, joined by Hardie, chased the men through the Mexico-Belize border, but they escaped and Mexican police arrested the quartet. Their trial was held earlier this year and following the convictions, Hardie’s father told us there would be an appeal.
Today, George Hardie, Sr., told Amandala, “justice has finally been done.” He said that Thompson and Miller, meanwhile, hope to take advantage of a prisoner transfer program between Mexico and Belize, bolstered by a Belize police report that they used justifiable force in doing their jobs and protecting the casino.