BELIZE CITY—A Belize City man who recently completed a four-month prison sentence but was subsequently found guilty on two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and with a shovel, damage to property and use of threatening words, was sentenced to two years in prison today in the Magistrate’s Court.

Chief Magistrate Ann Marie Smith imposed the sentence on Michael Tesecum, 37, a resident of 6812 Croton Lane.

When Tesecum was told that he had been found guilty on all of the charges, he eased himself down onto the small bench inside the courtroom and did not get up until he was ordered to do so.

Tesecum appeared emotional after receiving the verdict. With his head hanging down, he tried to conceal his streaming tears.

Police charged Tesecum with the four offenses after his sister, Tasha Jorgenson, who is a police officer in the Tourism Police Unit, reported to police that he assaulted her with a firearm.

Jorgenson also reported that Tesecum threatened that he would kill her, her husband and their children.

During his cross-examination of his sister, Tesecum admitted that he was annoyed with his sister, but said that he did not assault her with a shovel nor did he pull a gun on her. He said that he went to tell their mother about the situation, and that’s all he did.

Tesecum denied ever hurting his sister in anyway, and said that she fabricated the entire story about him.

It was his sister who called police and reported that he had pulled a gun on her, he told the court.
Tesecum said that his sister does not like him because she believes that he is trying to take away their mother’s piece of land.

In his defense, Tesecum gave sworn testimony from the witness stand. He told the court that on the morning of February 3, 2014, the day of the incident that led to the

charges against him, he got a shovel from his yard, and that was when his sister “began to trip” on him.

His sister, Jorgenson, however, testified that he assaulted her with the shovel and with a firearm.

Jorgenson testified that he first attacked her with the shovel, and then he threatened that he would kill her, her husband and children, too. She said that he also picked up stones from the street and threw it at her house, causing some damage.

Jorgenson said that Tesecum then went to his home and came back out with an object which resembled a firearm. It was then, she said
, that he pointed the firearm at her and told her that he would kill her, her husband and their children, too.

In determining that he was guilty of the offenses, Chief Magistrate Smith told Tesecum that during his trial, he never told his sister that she was telling lies.

Smith sentenced Tesecum to 2 years each for the two counts of aggravated assault with a firearm and shovel.

The sentences are to run concurrently, so Tesecum will only serve 2 years in prison. For the damage to property and use of threatening words charge, Tesecum was given two 6-month sentences, but those two sentences are also to run currently with each other and the first sentence, hence he will only serve two years.

He was also given remission of four months, because he asked the Chief Magistrate to consider that he just served four months in jail.

This means Tesecum will only serve 20 months behind bars.