He is charged with aggravated burglary for the robbery of Dario’s Meat Pie
BELIZE CITY, Mon. Oct. 28, 2019–Joseph Bryant Richards, Jr., 23, a former deliveryman for Dario’s Meat Pie bakery, located at 33 Hydes Lane, who the police believe was one of two persons who stole $34,103 from the office of the famous bakery, was charged with aggravated burglary when he appeared today before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts Anderson.
Richards pleaded not guilty to the charge. His attorney, Ronell Gonzalez, submitted that he should be granted bail, although the offence was committed with a firearm. However, Senior Magistrate Anderson said that the law precluded her from granting bail. She remanded him until December 30.
The incident occurred about 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, October 26. Nichole Perdomo, 43, the manager of the bakery, reported to the police that she was in her office, located on the second floor of the building, which has two flats, calculating the sales for the day when she heard someone walk up the stairs and she felt an object at the back of her head.
She said that when she turned around, she saw a man holding a gun to her head, and he told her to “put the money in the bag”.
She said that, fearing for her life, she pointed to a black filing cabinet drawer, and the gunman took out cash in US and Belize currency from the drawer and put them in a cream Atlantic Bank deposit bag.
She said she began to struggle with the gunman in an attempt to disarm him. She told police that the gunman punched her several times, then he pushed her into the filing cabinet.
The owner of the business, Ofelia Hernandez, who was in another room opposite the office, heard the commotion and she went to the living room and saw a man standing on the verandah. Hernandez said the gunman came out of the office and pushed her to the floor, and then he and the man on the verandah fled from the building and headed in the direction of New Road.
Police reported that they recovered all of the money from Richards, who took them to where he had hidden it behind a counter table downstairs in the office where the bakery is housed.
Police also reported that the second suspect is still at large.