BELIZE CITY, Tues. Aug. 4, 2020– Samuel August, Sr., 44, a backhoe operator, was taken to court today on charges of theft and damage to property.
He was arraigned by Belize City Magistrate Emerson Banner, and he pleaded guilty to the charges.
August is presently on remand for much more heinous crimes — specifically, the murder of his son and his son’s grandmother. Police said that at about 3:00 o’clock on the morning of October 31, August drove a backhoe into the house of Louise Young, his mother-in-law and the caretaker of his children.
The house was extensively damaged, and Young and her grandson were killed.
August has yet to answer for the two deaths.
The offenses for which August was charged today, however, occurred on November 2, 2018, when August went on a bizarre, violent rampage after fleeing from the hospital, where he was under police custody while being treated for injuries he suffered when he fell off the backhoe that he had used in the murderous incident on Fabers Road, when he drove into the house of his children’s grandmother.
He reportedly escaped from the police guard and ran out of the hospital and into Gentle Avenue, where he forced Tanesha Ross and her baby out of her SUV, just as she was just about to drive from her home.
August drove away in the stolen vehicle at high speed up the Philip Goldson Highway towards the Haulover Bridge.
August, however, crashed the SUV into a backhoe that was parked on the right side of the road, which leads from Belize City to Ladyville.
He then took out a knife and began to slash himself.
The stolen SUV was damaged extensively. Police who were chasing him took him out of the wrecked SUV and took him back to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was readmitted in a serious but stable condition.
After his release, August was remanded.
Reliable information to us is that in court today, he begged the magistrate for leniency, and told the court that he was sorry and that he is now a changed man.
The magistrate accepted his guilty plea and sentenced him to 7 years in prison. August still faces charges for the death of his son and his son’s grandmother.