Michael Tesecum, 32, and Teresa Watlow, 41, both pleaded guilty on Wednesday, November 4, 2009, for the offence of concealment of the body of a child, in the Supreme Court of Justice Michelle Arana. Justice Arana had set today as the sentencing day for the two, who had shared a common-law relationship that produced several children.
They are now separated and had a heated exchange between them, as they sat in the prisoner’s dock awaiting the judge’s sentence.
The two were represented by attorney Phillip Palacio of the Legal Advice and Service Center, while Crown Counsel, Christelle Wilson, presented the Crown’s case.
On August 17, 2004, Jermaine Tesecum, a child of the couple, who at the time were living on Riverside Street, in the Lake Independence area of Belize City, suffered an untimely death and his body was buried.
Jermaine Tesecum was only one year and seven months old when he died. But instead of reporting his death to authorities, the parents buried the toddler’s body in a white plastic bucket, behind their house.
Concerned family members had asked the couple about the child’s whereabouts, but they were told that the child had died from diarrhea. Persistent inquiries, however, led the mother to confide in her sister-in-law that the child was buried in the yard. The sister-in-law was the one who reported the matter to police.
When the infant’s body was discovered in 2008, police arrested Tesecum and Watlow on June 26, 2008 and charged them with concealing the body of a child, an offence which carries a maximum penalty of two years imprisonment under Section 115 of the Criminal Code of the Laws of Belize.
The child’s body was exhumed, but the government pathologist, Dr. Mario Estradabran, said that due to the state of decomposition, he could not determine the cause of death.
Had a cause of death been established by the examining pathologist, Tesecum or Watlow could have been charged for murder or manslaughter. But since no cause of death was ascertained, the DPP’s office laid against the couple the charge of concealment of the body of a child.
Counsel Wilson told the court this morning that Tesecum had given police a caution statement, in which he admitted that he had hit the child against a wall and the child had stopped moving, but he did not know what caused his death. Tesecum told police that after the child had died, its body was wrapped in a floral cloth and placed inside a white plastic bucket and buried.
Two character witnesses spoke on Watlow’s behalf, while no one spoke on Tesecum’s behalf. But after Watlow’s witnesses had addressed the court, Tesecum raised his hand, indicating that he wanted to address the court.
He stood up and told Justice Arana that the caution statement that police had taken from him was taken under threat. He said that the police had threatened him, saying that they would put away his common-law wife if he did not give them the statement admitting that he had hit the child.
Justice Arana, however, told him that it was too late to raise that issue, because he had already pleaded guilty.
One of Watlow’s character witnesses told the court that she was referred to the battered women’s shelter in San Ignacio, Cayo, and that she is presently receiving counseling and that she is a very protective mother. Marilyn Green, the witness, also told the court that Watlow is very sorry for what had happened to her child. Green said that to separate her from her children now would further traumatize her.
Attorney Palacio asked the court to temper justice with mercy, “because the defendants are humble people who acted out of fright and distress, and not by evil intent.”
Palacio told the court that Watlow is both mother and father to her five remaining children, one of whom was born after the incident involving Jermaine.
Palacio asked Justice Arana to follow a precedent that a fellow justice had set, when he imposed a monetary fine in a similar case, on a defendant who had pleaded guilty. Both his clients had been remanded to the Belize Central Prison from June 27, 2008 to October 17, 2008, Palacio informed the court.
But Crown Counsel Wilson objected to Palacio’s submission, informing the court that the case of Marcia Gonzalez, which Palacio was referring to as being similar, was not in fact similar.
In the Gonzalez case, Wilson told the court, the victim was a five-month-old fetus that had been aborted before it was born, whereas Watlow’s and Tesecum’s deceased child was one year and seven months old, when he died.
In her ruling, Justice Arana said that the two defendants had pleaded guilty, which had saved the court considerable time and money. Justice Arana further said that she noted that Tesecum only had one previous conviction, for the offence of loitering, and that Watlow had no previous conviction.
Arana also said that she had taken into consideration what the character witnesses had said on Watlow’s behalf. “I note that the caution statement that you (referring to Tesecum) gave to the police had helped the police. I also note that hardship will come upon your children if I impose a custodial sentence,” Justice Arana told the two defendants, who have five other children from the relationship that they had shared.
Tesecum and Watlow were each fined $2,500. The fines are to be paid by November 30, 2010. If any one of them defaults on the payment, a six-month prison term will have to be served.
When it comes to this case, the silence of the National Committee of Families and Children is especially disturbing. It is not known if the Director of Public Prosecutions is planning to appeal the judge’s sentence.