Photo: Leroy Haulze, convicted

by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)

BELIZE CITY, Fri. July 14, 2023

Leroy Haulze, 28, charged with the murder of Belize City businessman Jose Hilario Diaz, was found guilty of the charge today by Justice Nigel Pilgrim. However, his co-defendant, Emerson Garnett, 32, was acquitted.

Haulze will be sentenced on September 25.

Diaz was gunned down at about 5:43 p.m. on July 16, 2019, at his shop, located at 42 Cemetery Road.

The Crown, represented by Senior Crown Counsel Sheiniza Smith, relied mainly on video footage that allegedly showed Garnett fleeing from the crime scene with a gun in his hand while Haulze was present at the scene. The footage was admitted as evidence by Justice Nigel Pilgrim and it was viewed in court, where two of three police officers testified that, although it was not up to par, they could recognize Garnett as the person running from the scene with a gun in his hand. One of the witnesses for the Crown, Inspector Isias Sanchez, testified that he conducted an identification parade on July 29, 2019, and the witness positively identified Garnett as the person she saw in the footage. Sanchez testified, though, that he could not see clearly the face of the person in the footage.

Haulze was convicted because he was positively identified in the video footage, while in Garnett’s case there was some doubt that he was the man seen running from the scene.

After the Crown closed its case, Leeroy Banner, the attorney for Haulze and Garnett, submitted that they did not have a case to answer to. But the submission was overruled by Justice Pilgrim.

Haulze and Garnett then gave statements from the dock in which they denied that they committed the offence.