Senior Counsel Rodwell Williams, 54, law partner of Prime Minister Dean Barrow in the firm of Barrow and Williams, was shot last May as he exited his office in downtown Belize City.
Today, the two men accused of committing the act – Ricky Valencia, 28, and Akeem Thurton, 19 – were formally committed to stand trial in the next session of the Supreme Court, at the conclusion of a preliminary inquiry in the #2 Magistrate’s Court.
After receiving the statements and exhibits constituting the evidence against the two accused, Magistrate Ed Usher informed both that a prima facie case had been made against them for attempted murder, use of deadly means of harm and dangerous harm.
Bail was offered in the sum of $8,000 to each man, which only Thurton had met by the end of the court day.
On the night of May 31, 2010 around 8:00 p.m., Williams was shot once in the abdomen in the parking lot behind his office on Albert Street while in the company of a security guard. (The firm’s offices have since been moved to a newly completed building directly across the street from the old offices.) Robbery was ruled out as a motive, as the security guard was searched by the assailants but not harmed.
Williams survived surgeries here in Belize and at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, Florida, U.S.A., and has since returned to active practice.
Prime Minister Barrow told the press at the time of the incident that he knew of no plot to kill Williams, nor of any connection between the shooting and an attack on the Barrow and Williams offices on April 15, in which no one was hurt.
Valencia is also accused of conspiracy to commit robbery along with three other persons for the robbery of the Orange Walk Town branch of Heritage Bank on April 5, 2011.