Sentencing in one week’s time

Derrick Sanchez, 24, a boat repairman and construction worker of Ladyville, was convicted today of kidnapping Rodrick Williams.

At 8:45 p.m. on July 20, 2011, Williams, a taxi driver at the time, left the ITVET after a tour guide course when two young men, one dark and one fair, hired his taxi. According to Williams, he was driving on Freetown Road toward the Belcan Bridge when the men waved him down.

The dark-complexioned man got into the front passenger seat, while the fair-complexioned one got into the back seat, and they asked to be taken to Friendship Restaurant, on the Philip Goldson Highway.

Williams said that one of them told him to take a right turn into a street before the restaurant, and they stopped about three houses from the seaside.

It was at this point that the man in the back seat grabbed him around his neck and ordered him into the back seat. Williams was then dragged between the two front seats into the back seat by that same person, and the dark-complexioned man then drove.

Williams was ordered to keep his face down, while the driver then reversed to the highway. During this time, he was told that “We noh wanh hurt you; all we want dah yoh car fi wah mission.”

The driver then drove back toward the city, during which time he made a phone call. They then stopped by a little feeder road by Gonzalo Quinto and Sons Limited, at Mile 1 ½ on that same highway, and Williams said he peeped and saw the driver talking to a Hispanic guy.

He couldn’t hear what they were saying because the music was playing, but while the CD was changing, he heard the Hispanic guy tell the dark-complexioned one to “Go through.”

The driver then left the area and headed back up the highway, and although Williams had his face down, he told the court that he knew he was going back up the highway, because when they crossed the Haulover Bridge, he could hear them going over the grills.

As they appraoched Raul’s Rose Garden, Williams told the court that the fair-complexioned man in the back seat with him then pulled out a black rag and attempted to tie it over his face, but Williams managed to talk his way out of that by telling them that it was not necessary for him to do that, and that if they wanted his car, they could have it.

They drove past the airport road and Williams heard when the driver locked the doors automatically. Williams told the court that after hearing the doors being locked, he raised his right knee to prevent the man in the back seat from seeing when he unlocked the back door where he was – the back passenger side door. As the driver was about to make a right turn by Lo Lo Supermarket, the car slowed down enough for him to push the door open and jump out of the car.

Williams continued that after jumping out of the car, a man who was by the supermarket took him to the Ladyville Police Station, where he made a report. He also said that when he was dragged from the front seat into the back, he felt fearful for his life because the man had put something that felt like metal to his side.

Other witnesses were called to testify, including the Hispanic person whom Sanchez, the dark-skinned person, had gone to see; the arresting officer, Shaida McKenzie; and Inspector Santiago Ciau, the officer who recorded Sanchez’s caution statement.

In that statement, Sanchez told the officer that he received a phone call from Jimi Ortiz, the Hispanic man, who told him to go by his house, located by Gonzalo Quinto and Sons Limited. He said that he left Ladyville and caught a bus into the city, where he met Ortiz and another man named “Reds,” at Ortiz’s house.

According to Sanchez, he and Reds were instructed by Ortiz to head into the city by the roundabout, get a taxi, and return to his house in it. He said that Ortiz didn’t tell him what he was going to do.

Sanchez said they caught a taxi, and Reds put a knife to the driver’s neck and dragged him into the back seat when the car had stopped.

Sanchez said they went to Ortiz’s house and when they left, he drove back down to the roundabout by Pallotti High School, exited the car and caught a Ramos bus back up to Ladyville. He said that when he got home, he received a call from Reds who asked him if he had already gotten home, to which he replied yes. He said that Reds then told him that he would do what he had to do, and hung up.

Later on that night, he called Ortiz and was told by his father that the police had come for him. Early the next morning, police came for him, Sanchez, from Ladyville, and took him to the Queen Street Police Station, where he later gave the caution statement to Inspector Ciau.

The trial started on June 20, but before it was heard by the jurors, the judge heard the matter because Sanchez alluded to the court that he was promised that once he gave the caution statement, he would not be charged.

But during the voir dire, Justice Adolph Lucas, Sr., didn’t find any evidence to support Sanchez’s allegation, and the trial was sent to the jury.
After hearing the evidence in the trial, the 9-member jury took just over four and half hours to arrive at a guilty verdict. Sanchez was unrepresented in court and the case was presented by Kaysha Grant from the DPP’s office.

Sanchez was given a week to prepare his mitigation and present character witnesses to the court to speak on his behalf.

It is noteworthy that on September 24, 2009, Sanchez pleaded guilty to snatching a teacher’s sling bag while she was walking in Ladyville. She knew her attacker and was able to identify him as Sanchez.

Police later apprehended Sanchez and he wasted no time in taking police to where he had stashed the bag. All the bag’s contents were intact, and after pleading guilty and telling the court that he was drunk when he committed the offense, He was sentenced him to one year in prison.

Also, after the 2011 kidnapping, Sanchez did not stay out of trouble for long, because on March 19, 2012, he was one of five men who were charged with kidnapping Mexican diplomat Domingo Rodriguez Semerano. Semerano’s Nokia cell phone, a gold chain, $150 cash, and other personal documents totaling $1,850 were all stolen from him after he offered “a drop” to one his friends to a house located on a street that was unknown to him.

Sanchez and the other assailants were remanded to the Belize Central Prison because the offense was committed with a firearm and the prosecutor had put up strong arguments against bail being offered because of the nature of the offense, the fact that they allegedly kidnapped a high profile person – a diplomat, and the fact that Semerano had considered one of the men as a friend.