Marquis Conorquie and Nolbert Smith, sentenced
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar. 17, 2025
Tonight, three of four men found guilty of an attempted robbery at Lina’s Store were sentenced to prison time for attempted robbery and for kept firearm and ammunition.
They are Marquis Conorquie, Nolbert Smith and Keenan Castillo.
This morning, the men appeared before the Chief Magistrate, Jayani Wegodapola, in Court #1, where they learned their fate.
Conorquie and Smith each were sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempted robbery, while Castillo got a 7-year sentence. For the conviction for kept firearm, Conorquie was sentenced to six years, and Smith got a 4-year sentence, while Castillo got 5 years. Their sentences for their gun convictions are to run consecutively with the sentence for attempted robbery. And for the conviction for kept ammunition Conorquie was sentenced to 4 years in prison, while Castillo got 5 years. However, their ammunitions sentence is to run concurrently with the firearm sentence, so Conorquie will serve 12 years, while Smith will serve 10 years, and Castillo will serve 12 years. The men will have their time spent on remand in prison, which amounted to four months each, deducted from their prison sentences, said the Chief Magistrate, Jayani Wegodapola.
Castillo, who failed to appear in court for his trial after it had begun, was a no-show for his trial on March 7, 2025, and today he was sentenced in ex parte after the prosecutor, Inspector Dercene Staine, who represented the Crown, made an application this morning to have Castillo’s verdict handed down, and that he be sentenced as well in his absence, to which the other 2 convicted men, Smith and Conorquie, and the Chief Magistrate agreed. And so, that’s when she handed down her verdict of guilty against Castillo, who was found guilty of the three counts for his role in the attempted robbery.
In finding Castillo guilty in ex parte, the Chief Magistrate noted that in the video footage which she viewed carefully, she could see Castillo clearly, and for that reason she found him guilty. The Chief Magistrate also noted that she viewed the footage over and over and identified all 3 men who were found guilty in it.
Smith and Conorquie were found guilty last Tuesday, March 11, 2025.
In handing down the sentence today, the Chief Magistrate noted that she took into consideration the aggravating factors and the mitigating factors surrounding the offense and the offenders, and that she looked at each of the convicted men’s special circumstances surrounding the attempted robbery, and the role they each played as seen in the footage.
She noted that she took into consideration the seriousness of the offense, the inconvenience it caused the patrons and employees that day, the emotional distress it caused the victims, the impact of the offense, the level of violence, and the risk of serious harm to the public since a number of firearms were used, as well as the fact that all three men who were found guilty were armed with a firearm; they had no license to carry a firearm; it was a broad daylight armed robbery, and the act took a level of planning to execute.
The armed attempted robbery took place within a span of 3 minutes, from 11:28 a.m. to 11:31 a.m. Police were alerted of the armed robbery in progress and responded immediately, and as a result the would-be-robbers were unable to get anything during their attempt to rob Lina’s Store.