BELIZE CITY, Mon. June 9, 2025
There has been another adjournment in Elmer Nah’s trial for triple murder, which was to have started in May of this year in a trial, but has seen a series of adjournments, and is expected to include a number of voir dires— trials-within-trials.
Nah is to be tried in a trial by judge alone for the triple murder of Belmopan residents, John, David and Vivian Ramnarace, which occurred in Belmopan on New Year’s Eve, 2022.
On Friday, May 23, 2025, the Elmer Nah CMC (Case Management Conference) concluded, and the case was set to start on Monday, May 26, 2025; but on that Monday, the case saw another adjournment until today, Monday, June 9, 2025, due to additional disclosure which had been given to the defense,
This morning, Elmer Nah was escorted by police officers with high-profile weapons.
But in the courtroom of Justice Nigel Pilgrim, another adjournment was sought by his defense attorney, Dr. Lynden Jones, who, in making the request, cited another new set of disclosures he was given in the case.
Dr. Jones in court noted that two weeks ago, which was just after the last adjournment in Nah’s case, on May 27, 2025, a statement was given by the sister of murder victim Vivian Ramnarace.
According to Dr. Jones, the statement given by Vivian’s sister is indicating that she has two videos of the murder—one of which provides the vantage point from the back door, while the other video provides a view of what was taking place near the front door.
According to Dr. Jones, as the defense attorney, he was aware of the video with the perspective from the front door, but they had no knowledge about the back door video footage; and according to Dr. Jones, even though the statement was taken on May 27, 2025, the defense was just made aware of this new evidence on Sunday, June 8, 2025, at around 3:00 p.m. (a day before the case was to be called up and to commence).
Dr. Jones also requested that bail be granted to Nah.
Attorney Jones based his request for bail on the grounds that the multiple delays being caused by the Crown were not as a result of the defense. He also sought for Nah’s case to be transferred to the next High Court session, which is in October.
However, Justice Pilgrim, while he granted the adjournment, denied bail to Nah, and denied the defense’s request for the matter to be transferred to another session, and ordered that no more disclosures be given by the Crown in the matter.
The Crown is being represented by Special Prosecutor, Terrence Williams.
Justice Nigel Pilgrim’s reasons for denying bail to Nah were that he saw no excessive delay in the case, and that the matter has already been set to be heard in this session.
Elmer Nah was thus further remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 18, 2025.
On this date the trial is set to start, said the judge.
Notably, Vivian Ramnarace’s father and her sister were present in court.
Elmer Nah’s mother was also present in court today; that’s because Nah’s mother is a witness for the defense, and she had been summoned to appear in court today.
Nah’s mother will be taking the stand in the voir dire for the defense.