A young man from Belize City died shortly after 9:00 last night at the Western Regional Hospital after being chopped in the head, allegedly by a minor in the village of Cotton Tree, Cayo District.
The victim, Thaddeus Castillo, 21, a driver of #2520 Corner Mopan and Mahogany Streets, Belize City, had left the city on Sunday, July 24, to stay at an aunt’s house in Cotton Tree for the summer, along with two of his younger brothers.
The aunt, Martina Mercado, age unknown, is the sister of Castillo’s mother, Mrs. Desiree Hemsley.
Our newspaper visited the area in Cotton Tree, where it is said the deadly incident occurred. According to a resident of Cotton Tree, Castillo was chopped with a machete on a back street (the street has no name) in front of an open bushy lot, which is next to a mini-store.
Sources we spoke with there said that the murder was the end result of a “cat fight” that had taken place earlier in the day between Castillo’s aunt, Martina Mercado, and another woman, Jessie Quiroz, 41.
Reportedly, at around 8:45 p.m., Castillo was walking on the unnamed street when he was approached by a minor, 15, who then chopped him twice.
Castillo’s stepfather, Karl Hemsley, who has been in Castillo’s life since he was ten, and who had seen Castillo’s body, told us that Castillo was chopped in the center of the head, from the nose across the skull leading to the back of the head. He said that the injury was deep, about two inches, and that he was also chopped deeply on the left hand.
Hemsley believes that Castillo’s hand was chopped when he tried to shield his face and head.
Hemsley also told us that doctors had stitched together the split on his skull, but the injury was so great that there was no way Castillo could have survived. He died while undergoing an operation.
Mrs. Hemsley, in tears, told us that last night, at around 8:30, only minutes before Castillo was killed, he called her. She said he was affectionate on the phone, and that she stopped talking to him because she was playing Mega Bingo, but told him to call back.
“He told me ‘I love you, I love you, I love you’, and then burst in laughter,” said Mrs. Hemsley.
Castillo never called back. Instead, a relative in Cotton Tree called to say that he had been chopped with a machete, and that he was bleeding profusely from the head.
Information to us is that Castillo was on the ground a long time because police arrived long after they were called, and Castillo was taken to the hospital by the village chairman.
When the Hemsleys heard that he was in a critical condition, they left the city and travelled directly to the Western Regional Hospital, but by that time, Castillo was dying.
Amandala received two versions of the events that led up to this incident.
We were told that two females had been detained at the Belmopan Police Station, and that these were the two females who allegedly beat up Quiroz.
When we arrived at the station, we met Quiroz, who was suffering from an injured arm. She told us that two women had beaten her and broken her hand because she had “snitched on” them. She was in an agitated state, however, and could not explain what type of “snitching” she had done.
Quiroz said that her son, a minor, 15, had been detained in connection with Castillo’s murder. She said that it was the brawl that had occurred between her and Castillo’s aunt and the other woman that had led to the murder, but could not provide reasons as to why it happened.
All she knew, she said, was that the women beat her up and broke her hand, and that Castillo’s friends then beat up her common-law husband, Cardinal Lemoth.
Quiroz said that her son, the minor, then went to save Lemoth.
The next version of the story was given to us by Mr. and Mrs. Hemsley. According to the couple, yes, there had been a fight earlier between Jessie Quiroz and Mrs. Hemsley’s sister, Martina Mercado, but this was because Mercado had intervened on behalf of her niece, Mary, because Quiroz had become violent.
But in defending Mary, Mercado “put on a beating” on Quiroz, we were told, and this was when Castillo intervened, attempting to part the fight.
Mr. and Mrs. Hemsley said that after the fight, everyone went home, and they and Mercado thought that the “beef” was over.
But Mercado was not feeling well after the fight, and she sent her sons, along with her nephew, Castillo, to buy some pills at the mini-store.
According to Mr. and Mrs. Hemsley, on the way to the shop, Castillo and his two cousins were seen by a group of men, including Lemoth and Lemoth’s son.
Apparently, there was an exchange of words between them, which then turned physical, and one of the men then inflicted the deadly injury on Castillo.
The two females detained, one of whom we later learned was Castillo’s aunt, were released and no charges were brought against them.
Belmopan police have since detained a minor, 15, and an adult, 18, pending investigation.
Castillo’s body now awaits a post-mortem.