Photo: Adrian Swasey and Kajoan Roches

by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)

BELIZE CITY, Fri. July 14, 2023

Adrian Swasey, 27, who was charged with the murder of Kajoan Roches, 23, walked out of the High Court today when Senior Crown Counsel Sheiniza Smith entered a nolle prosequi, indicating that the Crown will not proceed with the case.

As a result, Justice Nigel Pilgrim told Swasey that he was free to go.

The nolle prosequi was entered because the main witness could not be located, despite the fact that efforts were made to do so.

A nolle prosequi is not an acquittal, meaning that the accused person can be rearrested and brought back to court to stand trial if the Crown finds that there is enough evidence. In the case of an acquittal, the accused cannot be charged again for the same offence, because that would amount to a case of double jeopardy.

Roches, a laborer of a Mahogany Street address, was fatally shot at about 8:30 p.m. on January 30, 2020, while he was on Ebony Street, near to its junction with Magazine Road.

Roches was standing in front of the yard of a friend, whom he was visiting, when two men rode by on a motorcycle, and went a short distance past Roches and his friend, before they stopped and one man got off the bike and fired a barrage of shots at Roches.

Roches died almost instantly from his injuries.

The gunman then got back on the motorcycle and he and his accomplice drove away.

Police said that their investigation led them to identify Swasey as a suspect, and after learning that he was wanted by the police, Swasey went to the police station and handed himself in.