Photo: Valentine Baptist

by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)

BELIZE CITY, Tues. Oct. 24, 2023

The Belize Court of Appeal, in a judgement 24 pages long, dismissed the appeal of Valentine Baptist, 33, who was convicted of the murder of Devon Parham, 19, and was sentenced to 30 years imprisonment, less 3 years and 5 months, which was the time he had spent on remand.

The court affirmed Baptist’s conviction and sentence.

Parham, who resided on Curassow Street, was fatally shot at about 4:00 p.m. on July 6, 2016, on Cemetery Road near to First Choice Pharmacy. He and his cousin, Victor Parham, had been walking on Cemetery Road, heading from its junction with Curassow Street and going towards Rogers Stadium, when Baptist, who was riding a bicycle, waited for them at the junction of Cemetery Road and Fuller’s Lane. Victor, in a statement he gave to the police, said he turned around and ran when he saw a man in a green T-shirt put his right hand in the pocket of his pants. Victor said he heard between six and eight shots, and when he went back to where he had left Devon, he saw Devon lying on the ground, apparently dead.

Two police officers who had been on a motorcycle at the time of the shooting, testified that about 45 seconds after the shots rang out, they pursued a man riding a bicycle, dressed in a green T-shirt, and they saw the man throw a firearm over the fence of a yard on Dean Street. The police officers retrieved the firearm, and later, when ballistic tests were done, it was confirmed that the expended shells found by Devin’s body were fired from the same firearm that the police had retrieved. As a result, Baptist was detained by the police and charged with murder.

At the trial, which was held in December, 2019, the Crown called 14 witnesses and was able to prove beyond a reasonable doubt to Justice Colin Williams that Baptist was guilty of murder.

In January, 2020, Justice Williams sentenced Baptist to 30 years in prison, less 3 years and 5 months, which was the time he had spent on remand.

At the appeal hearing, which was held in June, 2023, Baptist chose to represent himself. Nevertheless, after his case was perused by three attorneys, none of them were able to find any ground for appeal.

Baptist appealed on two grounds. One ground was that he was not given a fair trial; and the other ground was that the judge should not have allowed the firearm to be accepted as evidence. But the judges of the Belize Court of Appeal found that the trial was fair, and that the firearm evidence was crucial to the Crown’s case to ensure a conviction.

Senior Crown Counsel Sheneiza Smith represented the Respondent at the appeal.