The magistrate said that the prosecution had enough time to submit documents for the preliminary inquiry against a cop and 7 soldiers

ORANGE WALK TOWN, Thurs. Sept. 27, 2018– Eight lawmen charged with the February 2018 murder of Ariel Audinette and the attempted murder of Oscar Payes were released yesterday when they appeared in the Orange Walk Magistrate’s Court for a preliminary inquiry.

Senior Magistrate Michelle Arana struck out the case against the eight accused lawmen because police had not yet completed the directives that were given to them from the office of the Director of Prosecutions.

The accused men are police officer Lennart Cajun, 29, a resident of San Victor Village, Corozal District; and Belize Defence Force soldiers Mateo Bolon,28, a resident of Jalacte Village, Toledo District; Patrick Villagran, 31, a resident of Ladyville; Patrick Diego,26, a resident of Pomona Village, Stann Creek District; Elvis Cob, 33, a resident of San Victor Village, Corozal District; Edmar Petillo, 26, a resident of Carmelita, Orange Walk District; Bladimir Escarraga, 23, a resident of San Jose Village; and Francisco Sho, 23, a resident of Belmopan.

It remains to be seen how long the accused lawmen will remain free, or whether the charges will be brought back against them at a later date.

The accused Belize Defence Force soldiers are all from a unit known as BSAG, which is an acronym for Belize Special Assignment Group.

Attorney Oscar Selgado is quoted by News5 as saying that the magistrate had already given enough time to the prosecution to complete its file, but today, when they appeared in court, the file had still not been completed.

There was supposed to be a preliminary inquiry this morning,” Selgado said, adding that “The purpose of the preliminary inquiry is for the examining magistrate to look at the facts, look at the depositions that were presented by the prosecution, and satisfy herself whether or not there is enough evidence to send the matter to the Supreme Court for trial.”

Selgado said that, “On the 29th August this year, the preliminary inquiry was to be held, but the prosecution was not ready and they had asked for two weeks adjournment. The learned magistrate gave them one month adjournment to today’s final adjournment. This morning when counsels defending the defendants, that is, Senior Counsel Simeon Sampson, Senior Counsel Ellis Arnold, and myself appeared in court, we were ready to make legal submissions pursuant to section 34 of the Indictable Procedure Act arguing that there is an insufficiency of evidence to commit the matter to trial in the Supreme Court. The Crown stood up and made a representation that the file was still not ready.”

“All three attorneys made legal submissions pursuant to rule 3, sub-subsection 3 of the Criminal Procedure Rules 59 of Belize, that in fact, the time had expired. Rule 33 says that the preliminary inquiry must be held within six and a half months, which is 26 weeks from the first hearing. The six and a half months have expired,” Selgado continued to state.

He further said, “Rule 58 says that the time for disclosure must be two weeks prior to the P.I. So the P.I. is today, so the disclosure ought to have been completed two weeks prior to today, and that was not done. They are still not finished with disclosure, and they are still not finished with the file. So the learned magistrate upheld our submissions that in fact, the Criminal Procedure Rules were breached, and the breach is substantive, and the breach will result in the miscarriage of justice if there is an adjournment given to the Crown for the third time.”

The lawmen are accused of violently beating Audinette at his house, where they had gone to investigate the alleged theft of a cell phone belonging to a woman. Audinette died from blunt force trauma — his kidneys and liver were ruptured.

Police also accused the lawmen of the attempted murder of Oscar Payes, who was also allegedly severely beaten and was hospitalized at the Northern Regional Hospital following the incident.

We spoke to Senior Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez, who told us today via a text message, “Our records at the Orange Walk office indicate that the Orange Walk police picked up the file from said office on 25 September, 2018.”