On Wednesday in the Supreme Court, a jury of six women and three men found Luciano Jaime Peña, an interdicted police officer attached to the Caribbean Shores police precinct station in Belize City but who is originally from Corozal, guilty of bigamy – legal marriage to a second spouse while the marriage with the first spouse is still active and that person is still alive.
In December of 2008, Ruby Camara Peña of Corozal Town reported that she married Peña, 36, in a church ceremony before the late Father Lazarus Augustine at St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church near the town center on February 7, 1998, before a congregation and two witnesses, Onelia and Amelio Botes.
The couple had been dating for five years previously, and Camara Peña told the court that after the ceremony they lived together for 9 years and have three children, now ages 13, 9 and 7. Their marriage is registered in the General Registry (Vital Statistics) Unit as no. 461 of 1998.
In 2007 the couple separated, but they did not divorce, according to Ruby Peña, and she never received papers requesting divorce or annulment from her husband. She said he used both names, Luciano and Jaime, during their time together.
In February of 2008, Luciano Jaime Peña, going by the name Jaime Peña, married Guatemalan Olga Leticia Guzman Vasquez in a civil ceremony performed by Deputy Registrar of the General Registry, Edmund Pennill, at his Supreme Court office on February 19, 2008, again with two witnesses. This marriage is also registered, as no. 361 of 2008, and lists Peña as a “bachelor,” the term used to describe a single man.
Peña answered Pennill’s questions about previous marriages, if any, before going through with the ceremony in the affirmative, meaning that he had never married before.
Copies of both marriage certificates were entered into evidence by Assistant Registrar for Births, Deaths and Marriages, Lovinia Daniels, during the trial.
After Ruby Peña’s complaint to police, ASP Julio Valdez, then in charge of the Criminal Investigation Branch at Belize City’s Eastern Division on Queen Street, took charge of the investigation and retrieved Peña’s original application form and personal records from his police file as well as a copy of his Minister’s marriage license and sent them to the forensic lab in Ladyville for handwriting analysis.
The analyst from Ladyville told the court that after comparing the writing, in print and cursive script on both documents for three hours, and in particular 4 specific letters (J, P, A, and B), she concluded that the writing was one and the same.
Also called was Robert Palacio, a Justice of the Peace who had signed documents on Peña’s behalf in his, Peña’s, work as a policeman. According to Palacio, Peña and Vasquez visited him on February 18, before their marriage, and asked him to sign their application for the minister’s marriage license, which he did.
In his own defense, during a statement from the dock, Jaime Peña denied ever marrying the former Ruby Camara, whom he said he had met as a student at Corozal Community College (CCC). They were friends for several years and later involved in an exclusive intimate relationship, he said, but he claimed in court that when she got pregnant (by him) and ran into difficulties at home as a result, they agreed to live together in a common-law relationship.
Though she pressured him to, he said, he never agreed to marry her, because he did not have the Roman Catholic sacrament of confirmation. We are reliably informed that this is one of the requirements for marriage in that denomination, and that not having it has resulted in at least one instance of postponement of marriage so that it can be completed.
He further denied ever using the name Luciano Peña, and claimed that after their relationship became rocky in 2007, he moved out of the house they were living in and she threatened to make his life miserable.
He called as a witness his mother, Angelita Peña, who corroborated his story.
The jury began deliberations at 12:10 p.m. and returned with the verdict at 4:05 p.m.
Justice Herbert Lord, who heard the case, has set sentencing for November 11, 2011. Peña, under the Criminal Code, faces a term of seven years in prison.
Crown Counsel Sheiniza Smith prosecuted; Peña did not have legal representation.