Well-known criminal defence attorney, Oscar Selgado, who once boasted of having won “eight murder cases consecutively” in a single year, is himself now on trial for conspiracy to commit murder.
by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)
BELIZE CITY, Wed. October 4, 2023
Oscar Selgado, one of the most prolific defence attorneys in Belize, found himself in an unusual position when he appeared yesterday before Justice Nigel Pilgrim. Selgado’s role was reversed. He was not the defence attorney. He was the defendant in the dock—there to answer to a charge of conspiracy to murder an elderly woman, Marilyn Barnes, who had been a client of his, but was in the process of making complaints about him to the General Legal Council that could have caused him to lose his license to practice law.
Yesterday, the Crown, represented by the Director of Public Prosecution, Cheryl Lynn Vidal, and Crown Counsel Derrick Sambula, called 6 witnesses, among them Barnes, who testified that she had a conflict with Selgado because she did not like the way Selgado dealt with some cases (on her behalf) at the office of the Ombudsman, and she was going to testify against him on March 14, 2019.
Today, a voire dire, which is a trial within a trial, was held to determine the admissibility of a statement made by Giovanni Ramirez, the person whom Selgado allegedly attempted to hire to kill Barnes.
The first witness for the voire dire was Justice of the Peace Andrew Godfrey, who testified that he witnessed the recording of Ramirez’s statement and he affixed his signature to all 6 pages of the statement.
The second witness was former Inspector of Police Wilfredo Porfino, who recorded the statement. Porfino was allowed to read the statement out loud. Ramirez, in his statement, said that he contacted Selgado by phone on February 6, 2019, because he needed an attorney to represent him at his trial on a charge of possession of firearm without a gun license. He said Selgado agreed to meet him the following day, February 7, by the Charles Bartlett Hyde Building (Complex) on Mahogany Street. He said that when he got into Selgado’s white Forerunner and sat in the front passenger seat beside him, only he and Selgado were in the vehicle. Ramirez further stated that Selgado told him that he would take the case for a fee of $4,000, which could be paid in installments, but he, Ramirez would have to do him, Selgado, a favour. According to Ramirez in his statement, Selgado wanted him to kill Barnes, and Selgado gave him $500 as a downpayment and offered to represent him pro bono.
Ramirez said that they agreed to meet again at the same place, and Selgado gave him another $500 and told him that the [task] must [be] done before March 14, 2019. He said that on the third occasion when they met, Selgado took him to an apartment building on Southern Foreshore where Barnes lived. He said that Selgado had already showed him what Barnes looked like, and he could see that she was an elderly woman. He said that during all the meetings with Selgado, he secretly videotaped and recorded his conversations with Selgado on his cellphone. Ramirez further claimed that at no point did he have any intention to do what Selgado wanted, and he sent Selgado a copy of the video and requested that he pay him $1,000 in exchange for the cellular phone and the evidence it contained. He said they agreed to meet at the same place, but he became suspicious when he arrived there and he didn’t see Selgado’s vehicle. He suspected that it was a setup by Selgado to get him killed, and he left.
The case was adjourned until Wednesday, October 11, after attempts to play a DVD recording of a conversation between the DPP, the Commissioner of Police and Giovanni Ramirez failed.
Commissioner Williams had taken the witness stand at the voire dire and testified that he recorded the conversation with Ramirez and made 5 copies of it. The recording was presented in court and the DPP wanted to have it tendered into evidence. The defence, represented by retired judge, Adolph Lucas, Sr., did not object to it; but because the DVD did not play for Justice Pilgrim and everyone else in the courtroom to hear, it was not admitted into evidence.
Justice Pilgrim then adjourned the voire dire.
P.S. Questions have surfaced about recordings and other evidence tied to the case against Selgado that have seemingly gone missing after being submitted to the Belize Police Department. Recordings had reportedly been extracted from the cellphone in question, and in previous testimony the Supreme Court’s Registrar General, Trienia Young, stated that in 2021 she had received an envelope from Chief Justice Michelle Arana. She said that by feeling the envelope she discerned that CD cases were inside, but in February 2023, it was discovered that the exhibits in file were nowhere to be found, and she was unable to obtain other copies.
It has also been reported that Commissioner Williams said that Ramirez had sent him the video recording of his exchange with Delgado before going into hiding because he feared for his life.
Notably, other allegations against Selgado have surfaced. During the trial, Lionel Arzu, who was Ombudsman at the time, testified that an allegation had been made against Selgado by a male intern. He said that he had placed an envelope containing that complaint in a bag of his, and it subsequently went missing.