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Samuel August, Sr., 35, arraigned on murders of his son and ex-mother-in-law

GeneralSamuel August, Sr., 35, arraigned on murders of his son and ex-mother-in-law

BELIZE CITY, Fri. Nov. 9, 2018– Samuel August, Sr., 35, the former Belize City Council backhoe operator who allegedly committed the unspeakable crime of killing one of his three sons and his ex-mother-in-law with a backhoe, has been charged with two counts of murder.

In addition, police also charged August with one count of robbery for a late-model car which he stole and badly damaged, and in which he allegedly attempted to commit suicide.

Police brought August to the Belize City Magistrate’s Court this morning, and after a brief time in the court’s holding cell, August, with both hands and feet shackled in chains, walked slowly to the courtroom of Senior Magistrate Aretha Ford.

Magistrate Ford read the two counts of murder to August for causing the unlawful death of Samir August, his 5-year-old son, and the death of Louise Young, 53, his ex-mother-in-law, who were both killed on Wednesday, October 29.

August is also facing one count of robbery for stealing a 2015 Chevy Equinox, valued at $30,000, the property of Tanesha Ross, on Friday, November 2.

Magistrate Ford explained to August that the she is unable to grant him bail and that murder is indictable and will be tried at the Supreme Court.

The Senior Magistrate then adjourned August’s case to January 19, 2019.

In the early morning hours of Wednesday, October 29, August had just finished work but instead of taking the Belize City Council backhoe and parking it, August used the heavy piece of machinery to run into a house at #6 Fabers Road — the home of Louise Young, where his children lived.

The backhoe destroyed the front portion of the house, which was the bedroom where Young and little Samir were asleep.

Samir was killed instantly (his body was discovered later in the rubble.), while Young was flung outside the house and landed in the mud in the yard. Young died while undergoing treatment at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.

August saw a young girl running out of the house and targeted her with his backhoe, which he used to chase her into the neighbor’s yard next door. August rammed the backhoe into the neighbor’s kitchen, tearing it down, before he drove off after he was fired upon by a neighbor whose vehicle he had also hit with the backhoe.

August was later found unconscious behind the wheel of the backhoe, which he had crashed into a fence. He was transported to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he remained under police guard until the morning of Friday, November 2, when he escaped from the hospital and forcibly removed Ross and her two children from her car and then drove the car at high speed on the Philip Goldson Highway, crashing it into a backhoe in an apparent attempt to commit suicide.

After the car smashed into the backhoe, August was observed inside the vehicle stabbing himself with pieces of glass from the car’s broken window.

Since the office of the Director of Public Prosecution has advised the police to charge August, it appears that he was not deemed psychologically unfit to stand trial. It remains to be seen if that will remain the situation as this murder case makes its way through the court system.

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