At 4:43 this evening, the foreman of a jury of eight men and four women announced their verdict to a silent courtroom in the Supreme Court of Justice Herbert Lord.
After nearly five hours in deliberation, they had found housewife Viola Pook, 54, guilty of the murder of her common-law husband, Orlando Vasquez, 48 (also known as Orlando Mai) at their home in Rancho Dolores Village, Belize District, on the night of New Year’s Eve, December 31, 2008.
On that date, Vasquez sustained first and second-degree burns to his chest, arms, legs, upper back and in total, to 70% of his body surface, which, according to forensic examiner Dr. Mario Estradabran, provoked multiple organ failures, congestion and edema (abnormal fluid collection) in the lungs, which caused his death two days later at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital (KHMH) in Belize City on January 2, 2009.
Crown Counsel Kaysha Grant called ten witnesses, including a daughter, cousin and long-time friend and neighbor of the accused, none of whom saw the incident firsthand.
The daughter said she was in her kitchen across the street from her mother’s residence when she noticed a strange, bright ball of fire that appeared from nowhere and heard a loud noise and then screaming.
Upon investigating, she saw her stepfather, Vasquez, standing in the doorway of the kitchen, apparently on fire, and his son was throwing water on him. According to her, her mother stood about 10 to 12 feet away behind her, apparently doing nothing, just standing there, even as she was trying to assist her father and was calling for the police and an ambulance.
Sgt. Zuniga testified that on his arrival, he first toured the crime scene, making notes of the burn marks to a chair and table, and a stove that he was not sure had sustained damage, although one other witness disagreed at the trial.
Thereafter, Zuniga went outside and asked the accused, whom he knew from his tours and patrols in the area and from traveling with her on the village bus, what had happened. Her response, according to him was: “Dah me ketch ah fire.”
The sergeant testified that he immediately cautioned her and detained her on suspicion of grievous harm after she refused to give a full statement. He had also intended to transport Vasquez, who by that time was lying on the ground in the yard curled in the fetal position, still alive but in obvious pain, to a hospital for treatment, but his vehicle met the BERT ambulance coming in to Rancho Dolores at Double Head Cabbage, and he left the patient with them and continued with Viola Pook to Ladyville and then Belize City, where he handed her over to an officer at the Queen Street Police Station.
Curiously, it took some six months for Sgt. Zuniga to issue a formal report of what he did that night, even though the investigation was transferred to another officer from Ladyville shortly thereafter.
Zuniga claimed in court that he had written down what Viola Pook told him in a police-issued notebook, but could not produce the notebook in court because, he said, he lost it while moving from his posting sometime later.
He also never endeavored to take statements from anyone else at the scene — because they would not talk “against” each other, he claimed — nor did he tell anyone else what Viola Pook told him.
An investigator for the Fire Service determined that the blaze that started in the kitchen and apparently caused Vasquez’s injuries was caused by an “unknown accelerant” meeting an open flame, but under cross-examination, when asked about the possibility of an accident happening due to distraction, as in, as posited by defense attorney Senior Counsel Hubert Elrington, someone turning on a butane-fueled stove, getting distracted, then putting a flame, like a match, to the stove, he said that in that case, the fire would have trailed back to the source, of which he saw no evidence in this case.
Samples of Vasquez’s clothes were sent to the forensic lab for testing, but no report was issued on them by the time of the trial. Samples of fluid taken from Vasquez’s body after the post-mortem, which were likewise sent to the lab, were also apparently ignored.
A female doctor was called, who stated that she examined Viola Pook on January 5, 2009, and found that she had first-degree burns to the lateral, or outer portion of her right forearm, which she said could have been caused by contact with a hot surface.
In her own defense, speaking from the dock, Pook said that she was elsewhere in her house getting ready for church that night; Orlando had come in with a ham he wanted prepared and was in the kitchen.
About 15 minutes later, she said, she heard a loud noise and scream, and upon rushing outside, saw her common-law husband on fire. Unable to get close to him because the fire was too hot for her, she said, she shouted for help and assisted in putting out the fire and calling for police and an ambulance.
She denied ever telling Sgt. Zuniga what he claimed she said; she maintained that she had only told him that she would not give a statement and remained silent.
The case evokes comparisons to the famous case of Nora Parham, convicted of murder and hanged in the same year, 1963, for the death of her policeman husband, Ketchell Trapp, whom she allegedly doused with gasoline and set afire in the latrine at their home in Orange Walk Town.
More recently, two women have faced murder charges in court: Tiffara Smith, who was acquitted after three trials for the death of her brother, Dale Lino, in April of 2007 (the first trial ended in a conviction, which she successfully appealed at the Court of Appeal; the second was aborted after she suffered a schizophrenic episode in the courtroom, and the third ended in a directed acquittal).
Yanira Escobar, a Guatemalan, is currently serving a six-year sentence for manslaughter after being convicted of the lesser charge; she was acquitted of murder at a trial for the death of Yesenia Salguero in San Ignacio in July of 2005, when she was originally sentenced to 15 years.
Women currently remanded on murder charges include Lavern “Anti-Christ” Longsworth for the burning death of her common-law husband David White last July; May Bush of San Ignacio for stabbing David Guerra, on June 18 of this year; and Lucilla Bartley for the death of Osbourne Gordon in April.
Sentencing for Viola Pook is set for July 20, 2011.