BELIZE CITY, Wed. May 30, 2018– Alfonso Noble, 41, the editor of the governing United Democratic Party’s (UDP) Guardian newspaper and a mouthpiece on the party’s Wave Radio and Television Fus Thing Da Mawnin talk show, appeared before Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford along with his attorney, Herbert Panton, for a preliminary inquiry into a road traffic accident that claimed the life of Hattieville resident Gilbert Meyers, 48.
Panton had submitted that there was no evidence from the two eyewitnesses that Noble was speeding, but Magistrate Ford relied on a police sketch in the file that showed, that Meyers was riding on the shoulder of the road when the accident occurred between Miles 3 and 4 on the George Price Highway, on the night of December 24, 2016.
Meyers was riding his bicycle from Belize City to his home in Hattieville, and Noble was driving from the city to his home at Mile 8 on the George Price Highway.
Following the accident, Noble spent the rest of the Christmas holiday in police custody at the Raccoon Street Police Station because he had refused to provide police with a urine specimen.
Police charged Noble with manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, driving a motor vehicle without due care and attention, and failing to provide a specimen to police for testing.
When Noble is indicted on the offences, however, the offences that are not indictable will not be on the Supreme Court indictment. He will therefore only be facing charges for manslaughter by negligence and causing death by careless conduct, which are the indictable offences.
If any of the other offences are hybrid (meaning they can be tried either summarily or by indictment) then they would be joined to the indictment. However, for offences that are not hybrid and are only summary offences, evidence may be adduced from those offences to support the indictment at trial.
Meyers’ family had filed a civil claim against Noble, which was settled by his insurance company. The family’s civil claim was handled by the law firm of Musa and Balderamos, but the exact amount of the settlement was not made public, though there were speculations in certain sectors of the media that the settlement was in the region of $100,000.