_{Gilbert Anthony Graham, Jr., charged}

BELIZE CITY, Tues. June 24, 2025

A teenager—Triston Omarion Ortiz, 18—lost his life in a freak accident that occurred as a Toyota Hilux 4-door pickup truck, in which he was one of two occupants, was crossing the Old Belize River Bridge in Maskall Village on Sunday morning around 5:00 a.m.

_{Tristan Ortiz, deceased}

The person who was driving the truck at the time of the incident, Gilbert Anthony Graham, Jr., 34 years, a Belizean-American technician of Las Vegas, Nevada, has been charged for three traffic offenses. Graham was reportedly driving the truck from a west to east direction within Maskall Village, when, upon approaching the Old Belize River Bridge, he made a faulty assessment of the distance of the truck from the bridge and collided into the left-hand side of the bridge’s railing, whereupon the vehicle fell off the edge of the bridge and landed on the river bank below. Ortis was flung from the vehicle and was fatally injured.

When police arrived at the scene, Ortiz, a Belizean laborer of Maskall Village, Belize District, was seen with visible injuries to the head and to the body in the pan of a truck being rushed by villagers to seek medical attention. He was ferried to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for medical assistance but was pronounced dead on arrival.

A specimen was obtained afterwards from Graham by police.

This morning at around 9:30 a.m., Ladyville police escorted Graham to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Coney Drive, and at around 10:00 a.m., Graham, in the presence of his attorney, Senior Counsel Ellis Arnold, appeared before a Senior Magistrate in Court #2, where he was read three traffic offenses: one count of manslaughter by negligence, one count of causing death by careless conduct, and one count of driving without due care and attention.

No plea was taken from Graham, who, his attorney explained to the court, is grieving the loss of a close friend and someone who was like a brother to him.

Arnold, in regard to the granting of bail to his client and his client’s ability to return to Belize to face the charges, committed to ensuring that Graham returns to Belize on his next court date, as the case was adjourned for August 15, 2025.

With no objection having been made to bail, the Senior Magistrate of Court #2 offered bail to Graham in the sum of $5,000 plus one surety of the same amount, or two sureties of $2,500 each, which Graham met after 12:00 noon today.

Graham, as explained by the sitting Senior Magistrate, must be present at the preliminary inquiry for his case when that date is agreed upon.