Five men appeared in the #1 Magistrate’s Court to be arraigned in connection with the “burial ground” murder of Randy Coye, which occurred sometime last Friday night in Belize City.
The men, Brandon Smith, 23; Kenroy Humes, 20; Leon Gray, 21; Deshawn Mena, 23, and Edwin “Drive” Flowers, 27, did not have to enter a plea and were told by Chief Magistrate Margaret Gabb-McKenzie that their case would go to the Supreme Court if there is enough evidence against them after a preliminary inquiry is held at a future date.
They were all remanded to the Hattieville Prison until their next court appearance on November 10, 2009.
Three of the men were charged with the murder of Randy Coye, 20: Brandon Smith, Kenroy Humes and Leon Gray. Edwin “Drive” Flowers, however, was charged with one count of abetment to commit murder. In addition, Smith, Humes, Gray and Mena were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
None of the men were represented by an attorney.
Randy Coye had gone missing on Friday night, October 2. His body was discovered last Monday morning, October 5, in the Lord Ridge Cemetery. When the body was first discovered, the presence near the body of a concrete bible head stone from a nearby grave gave police the impression that Coye was murdered with the grave stone. That, however, was not the case.
A post-mortem revealed that he had multiple gunshot wounds to his head, neck and chest. At least one of the bullets hit him in his heart, according to pathologist Dr. Mario Estradabran, who conducted the autopsy on Coye’s decomposing body.
Randy Coye is the brother of Richard Russell, who has been shot two times on Central American Boulevard by rival gang members, and has reportedly been lying low outside Belize City.
One of the accused men, Brandon Smith, who has had his share of run-ins with the law, was recently a target of a gunman who opened fire indiscriminately on Mahogany Street, hitting two children and shooting Smith in his shoulder.