Accused murderer Wesley Emmanuel, 33, a mechanic of Cotton Tree, Cayo District, has been remanded to the Central Prison pending a decision from the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) on whether to try him again on a charge of murder, after a jury of eight men and four women were not able to reach a unanimous verdict today.
At 7:41 tonight, the jury’s foreman, after deliberations that lasted four hours and 27 minutes, from 3:14 in the afternoon, told Justice Adolph Lucas that they had not been able to reach a unanimous verdict, which is required in all murder cases, whether for conviction or acquittal.
When Justice Lucas questioned them on whether they could reach a verdict if given more time, the foreman said no, and the jury’s members agreed that they did not expect to do so even if given more time.
Emmanuel and two others are accused of the murder of Emigdio Gomez, 26, of Guinea Grass, Orange Walk, and the attempted murder of Cornelius Schmitt of Orange Walk on the Coastal Road in June of 2008.
Schmitt testified in court that he and Gomez were sent to the Banana Bank area of Cayo in a ten-wheel truck belonging to Gomez’ uncle, Emiliano, to retrieve a bulldozer and bring it back to Orange Walk.
But while traveling on the Burrell Boom-Hattieville Road on the return journey, they were stopped by the occupants of a small black two-door car, and at gunpoint, were forced out of the truck and into the car. The party turned back toward the Coastal Road, with one of the robbers, the one carrying a 9mm firearm, driving the truck and the two others in the vehicle with the victims.
After one of the robbers was left at the junction of the Coastal Road and Western Highway at Mile 30, on a feeder road off the main road, Schmitt and Gomez were robbed of over $300, and Schmitt was shot three times in his jaw and left side. Gomez tried to run for his life, but according to Schmitt, the two men who took them into the road set chase after him. Gomez was later found dead, suspended from a nearby tree with a belt tied around his neck. The cause of his death was identified by Dr. Mario Estradabran, forensic examiner, as asphyxia due to hanging.
Schmitt said the perpetrators were a dark-skinned man and two light-skinned men, but never identified Emmanuel as one of the attackers.
Emmanuel was originally charged along with Jesse James Ochoa, 21, of Valley of Peace, Cayo, but Ochoa was acquitted last December by a jury and Emmanuel freed on a nolle prosequi, only to be re-arrested.
Justice Lucas ruled earlier this year that the case against Emmanuel did not end with the nolle prosequi, which came during a voir dire to determine the admissibility of a caution statement police say Emmanuel gave them freely at the time of the investigation.
According to the statement, Emmanuel admitted to being on the scene and participating in the incident at the behest of a third suspect known only as “Juan Aldana,”, who came to him for help earlier in the day to supposedly take a truck with a bulldozer on it to the Benque Viejo border, where Aldana said he had someone waiting to buy it.
He denied, however, chasing Gomez into the bushes along with Aldana after Aldana shot Schmitt. They later fled the area, sharing the money they took from their victims, and drove the truck and bulldozer to the More Tomorrow Road, but after the truck bogged down off the side of the road, Aldana dropped Emmanuel at his residence and claimed that both Schmitt and Gomez were dead and that Gomez had also been shot, though there was no evidence of a gunshot wound on his body.
In court, however, Emmanuel gave an unsworn statement claiming that he had been induced to give the caution statement with the promise of food and offers of assistance with the case from senior officers, Inspector Sinquest Martinez and Sergeant Nicolas Palomo.
He claimed not to have eaten for more than 36 hours, from the time of his arrest to immediately after giving the statement, but in court the officers said they did not know whether Emmanuel had eaten before giving the statement, or as a result of giving the statement. Emmanuel said that while he was under detention in Belmopan, his mother, with his breakfast, was denied access to him at the police station.
Emmanuel is defended by attorney Ernest Staine. Crown counsel Christophe Rodriguez of the DPP’s office prosecuted the case.