_{(l-r) Anthony Villamil, walked after the crown withdraw the charge against him; Jason Shaw, case abort and new jury to be empaneled for October trial and Leslie Martinez, will stand trial in October with Shaw for Willful Oppression.}

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. June 5, 2025

A very unusual and unexpected series of events unfolded in the trial against three police officers who had been accused of willful oppression upon a couple who they allegedly caught having sex in an abandoned house back in 2020, and who were reportedly forced by those officers to continue the sexual act while they video-recorded them.

The three officers—Leslie Martinez, 43; Jason Shaw, 51; and Anthony Villamil, 25 – who were all at the time serving members of the Belize Police Department—were charged criminally for the offense, and on Monday of this week, a jury of 9 persons, 5 women and 4 men, were empaneled to start the trial.

The officers were all on interdiction since being charged criminally, and were out on bail. At their indictment on Monday, all three accused officers pleaded not guilty.

And so today, the trial was supposed to commence in the courtroom of Justice Candace Nanton with the Crown representative from the DPP’s (Director of Public Prosecution) office addressing the jurors with his opening address, then calling up their first witness.

But a bombshell was dropped in court by the Crown, who withdrew the charge from against Villamil, leaving only Shaw and Martinez before the 9-member jury that had been empaneled.  The judge was left in a very uncomfortable position, having to now explain to the jurors why only two men were left sitting in the defendant box and not three, as they had observed when they were empaneled to hear the trial.

And then, after addressing those concerns with the parties of the case, the Crown and the defense attorney for Shaw and Martinez (attorney Leeroy Banner), the judge was then faced with the issue of three jurors who had to be excused from sitting further in the case.

The first juror to be excused was a male who gave a good reason why he could not sit on the matter, so he was excused, leaving 8 jurors this morning, which in law was allowed and the case could proceed, as the judge noted.

But a little later this morning, two female jurors, after seeing the defense attorney in court today, Leeroy Banner, who unfortunately was not present in court on Monday for the jury selection, told the court today that both of them know Banner well, as one of them is from his village and the other is a friend of his from another village; and so the judge excused them both from sitting on the panel of jurors.

With 3 jurors out of 9 having been excused, the judge was forced to abort the trial of the men.

The remaining jurors were dismissed, and a new set of jurors will be empaneled on October 20, 2025 to hear the case of the two remaining accused officers, Jason Shaw and Leslie Martinez.

On Monday at the selection of the 9-member jury, attorney Hurl Hamilton, who represented Villamil, was present and had held brief for attorney Leeroy Banner; and so, due to Banner’s absence in court, the selected jurors did not see who was the attorney for Martinez and Shaw until today.

The trial was expected to last 5 days, and the Crown was also expected to call 9 witnesses to the stand, including the two virtual complainants.

Notably, the Crown, having withdrawn the charge against Villamil, is uncertain whether he will be used as a witness against the other two officers; but up until Monday, he was an accused.

We were told that after Monday’s indictment of the three accused officers, Villamil gave police a statement regarding the 2020 matter which implicated the other two, and that’s why he saw the charge withdrawn from against him.