_{Dane Gillett (Pic BBN)}

by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 20, 2025

Reputed gang member, Dane Gillett, 27, charged with the murder of Dwayne Gabourel, 15, was freed of the charge today when the trial judge, Justice Derek Sylvester, upheld a “no case to answer” submission that was made by his attorney, Orson “OJ” Elrington.

_{Dwayne Gabourel, deceased}

Justice Sylvester discharged Gillett, and Gillett went home a free man.

The Director of Public Prosecution (DPP), Cheryl Lyn Vidal has indicated that she is going to appeal Justice Sylvester’s decision.

Gabourel, a student of St. John’s College, was fatally shot in broad daylight on September 27, 2021. Video footage that was viewed at the trial and was admitted into evidence, showed Gabourel at the window of a shop on New Road in Belize City, seeking to make a purchase, when his assailant alighted from a motorcycle, walked up to him with a firearm in his hand, and shot him from point blank range. Gabourel died three days later.

The footage showed that the gunman had a shirt thrown over his head, covering his face. But a police officer who had carried out an investigation into a gang known as the Majestic Alley Crips, of which Gillett was allegedly a member, and had interacted with Gillett, testified that Gillett was the gunman, and that he was able to recognize him because of the particular tattoos that are on Gillette’s left arm.

But it was on the basis of the tenuous nature of that identification that Elrington made his no case to answer submission. The submission was made after the prosecution closed its case, having called 30 witnesses, most of them agreed witnesses, whose statements were read into evidence.

The trial began in November 2024 and was adjourned until the following year, 2025, after Elrington made his submission and the DPP responded.

The allegation was that Gabourel was killed in retaliation for the murder of Michael Henry, an alleged member of Majestic Alley Crips.