After two years awaiting trial for the murder of Emigidio Gomez, one of the two men accused of the crime was found not guilty by jurors, while the prosecution is working on re-trying the other at a later date for the same murder.
On Monday, June 16, 2008, Emigidio Gomez, 22, a truck driver and resident of Guinea Grass Village, and Cornelio Schmitt, 26, a Mennonite and resident of the Shipyard area, were both assaulted. Gomez was killed after he had been severely beaten, tortured, shot and hanged, but Schmitt was lucky. He pretended to be dead after being shot, and so escaped the gunmen.
The trial began with only two of three suspects, since the other accused, Juan Aldana, is believed to have fled the country around the time of the incident. The two suspects who were tried, Jesse James Ochoa and Wesley Emmanuel, however, were arrested and charged with the crime in June 2008, and had been on remand at the Belize Central Prison ever since. The twelve jurors for the trial found Ochoa not guilty, while Emmanuel, during a voir dire, had the charges dismissed against him by the prosecution, but was recharged immediately after by police.
Emmanuel was represented by attorney Ernest Staine, and Ochoa was represented by attorney Dean Lindo; Senior Crown Counsel, Yohanhseh Cave, prosecuted the case.
The not guilty verdict for Ochoa, 22, a resident of Orange Walk Town, was made yesterday, Monday, December 20, in the Supreme Courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas after a strenuous battle.
Cave relied on the theory of joint-enterprise to prove that while neither Ochoa or Emmanuel had admitted to killing Gomez, that in fact they each executed their individual role and that they both knew of the intention to commit murder that day.
Cave confronted Ochoa with the accusation that in a real life setting, no one would be oblivious to happenings around them if they themselves weren’t directly involved in the execution, especially with the events leading up to the murder that day, June 16, 2008.
The case for the prosecution was not ideal – an identification parade was never held for both Ochoa and Emmanuel, upon their detention.
Cave tried for dock identification by the key witness, Schmitt, but his request was overthrown, because the defense attorneys objected to it based on the fact that prior to the trial, there was no identification made against either person by Schmitt.
The issue of tendering the caution statements, made by both Ochoa and Emmanuel back in June 2008, took the trial into a voir dire, which resulted with the prosecution dismissing the charges against Emmanuel.
Emmanuel was then recharged by police on the same day and taken back to the Belize Central Prison. His attorney, Staine, told us then that, “The only incriminating evidence was the purported caution statement by the two accused.
“Basically, it was a flagrant breech of his constitutional rights; the police failed to tell him [Emmanuel] that he had the right to consult with an attorney.
“The prosecution tried to slip in a dock identification, but Mr. Lindo and I opposed, and this was upheld in particular, because in his statement, Cornelio Schmitt, the Mennonite, is not sure of the identity of the other two, just of the gunman.”
Ochoa’s attorney, however, claimed that he was pressured into making the caution statement and sought to poke holes into the prosecution’s joint-enterprise theory, claiming that there was no knowledge on Ochoa’s part of the intention to commit murder.
Lindo told us after the not guilty verdict was announced yesterday that, “There were two voir dire, one was when we challenged the admissibility of the statement; we also submitted a no-case to answer, and that also failed. We felt that the statement was given under pressure, that it wasn’t free or voluntary; and while we didn’t say there was any threat or offer, we submitted that there was pressure, in the sense that they [the police] had him traveling all day, then they took him to the police station; they had him under pressure for about three hours without any refreshment; we felt that that weakened his will.”
Ochoa’s caution statement detailed the entire events but denied knowledge of the intention to rob and kill the men.
His statement was as follows: “I am from Orange Walk Town, where I just moved from six months ago to the Young Bank Area. After I settled in I became friends with Juan Aldana, and I can remember that the first time we hang was when he took me to the Bank and then we went to a bar. Since me and Aldana became friends, almost on a daily basis he invited me to drink beer after work, and we discuss work and personal issues.
“On the sixteenth of June, 2008, Monday morning I was at my home sitting on my sofa and then I went to my room when my cousin came to tell me that Juan Aldana was looking for me.”
Ochoa went on to state that he and Aldana went on a routine drive around the town when suddenly, “He [Aldana] then told me that he felt crazy to do anything. He then took me to a dark-skinned fellow who works at the car wash place close to the Texaco Gas Station [in Orange Walk]. The dark-skinned fellow is about 6 feet 2 inches and has Afro hair with tattoos on his right arm; Aldana then drove to Banana Bank Lodge and we went to use the bathroom, where Aldana asked me what could we thief from there.
“I cannot remember the time we went there. Aldana then told me that Banana Bank road was a nice place to jack cars. I then told him that he must be high; at this time I saw a truck with a bulldozer passed. I saw Aldana watching the truck [both Ochoa and Aldana drove past the truck, which was heading in the Belmopan direction].”
According to Ochoa, the two men then returned to the Texaco gas station, where the dark-skinned man was working.
Ochoa: “I overheard Aldana telling the dark-skinned fellow that he had a mission; we then arrived around La Democracia Village and I saw the same truck that was carrying the bulldozer ahead of us and I heard Aldana telling the dark-skinned fellow, ‘that da it right deh’”.
At this point Ochoa stated in his caution statement that the dark-skinned man had now accompanied them in the vehicle.
According to Ochoa’s caution statement, they then passed the truck again on the Western Highway and they stopped in Hattieville at a snack shop and Aldana and the other person were speaking secretly; the truck passed them again, this time in the direction of Orange Walk.
Ochoa told police that, “I then hear Aldana saying ‘boy it looks that da Orange Walk they are going’; we then boarded the car.”
Somewhere on the Western Highway the car, being driven this time by the dark-skinned fellow, overtook the truck again and stopped in front of the truck.
Ochoa’s caution statement continued, “The truck then stop and he approached the driver. I heard Aldana telling the driver of the truck, ‘Well, you have to come out and turn this truck around, because we will have to carry this truck to the station,’ [Apparently Aldana was impersonating a police officer with instructions to take the truck in as its lights were not working properly].”
Gomez and Schmitt were told to get into the back of the car with the other dark-skinned person and Ochoa, and Aldana drove the truck. They all stopped at Mile 31; Ochoa said that this was where he stayed with the truck and both the victims and the two men left in the car.
Cave argued, however, that Ochoa had to have had knowledge of the intentions of Aldana and the other person.
According to the survivor, Schmitt, he and Gomez had exited the car and accompanied the two men because they had been told that the men needed to go retrieve something.
Schmitt told the court that the driver (allegedly Aldana) was playing with the gun by throwing it in the air, then he shot him (Schmitt). Schmitt said that upon being shot he fell to the ground, and a dark-skinned man turned him over to search him for money.
“Emy [Gomez] was at the side of the car and I was at the back. After Emy started running, I didn’t see where the persons went,” he said.
Schmitt had pretended to be dead and after realizing his assaulters were confident that he was indeed dead, he made his way to a nearby home for assistance; Gomez, on the other hand, was tortured to death. He had a cut to both the left and right side of his head; he was hanged on a tree and had a gunshot wound in his left chest.
The twelve jurors, consisting of three men and nine women, went into the deliberation chambers at 12:11 p.m., and returned at 4:24 p.m., when they announced the verdict of “not guilty” for Ochoa.
Ochoa said, “I am just happy that I am free now; I will go back to school. I feel a big relief, mien, happy.”
Emmanuel, however, is still on remand at the prison and is awaiting another trial for the murder of Emigidio Gomez, while Aldana’s whereabouts are still unknown.