Photo: (l-r) Delson and Tionne Paguada, convicted

by Roy Davis (freelance reporter)

BELIZE CITY, Mon. July 24, 2023

There was a lot of excitement today at the High Court after Justice Nigel Pilgrim gave his verdict in the trial of three men charged with the murder of Jimmel Paul Jex, who was shot and killed on January 23, 2018 in the San Mateo area of San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye. Justice Pilgrim found Delson Paguada, 24, and his brother, Tionne Paguada, 21, guilty of murder. The third accused, Timothy Carcamo, 45, was found not guilty of the charge.

Tionne could not contain himself. He had to be restrained after he got up and pointed his finger at Justice Pilgrim and demanded an explanation for his finding a person guilty when the person never held a gun or pulled the trigger.

But that was not all. Tionne tried to jump through the window of the waiting room that is adjacent to Justice Pilgrim’s courtroom. He was restrained again and then brought down to a police vehicle that was waiting to transport him and his brother to prison.

Justice Pilgrim has ordered a social inquiry report, a psychiatric report, and a criminal record for the convicts. He has also ordered a victim impact assessment statement. He has set October 2 for sentencing.

In delivering his verdict, Justice Pilgrim said that Delson and Tionne were positively identified by the witness, Phillipa Zetina, who testified that she knew them from when they were children. But in the case of Carcamo, her identification of him as the third person was not reliable because, unlike the Paguada brothers, she did not know him before the incident. Also, she picked Carcamo out of an array of photographs that were shown to her by the investigating officer and that was not proper procedure.

Attorney Leeroy Banner, who represented all three men, had made a “no case” submission after the Crown closed its case, but it was not upheld by Justice Pilgrim.

All three men gave statements from the dock. Delson said that at the time of the incident he and Tionne were at the home of their neighbor, Martin Reyes, helping him to do some land filling and painting, and they did not leave until after 6:00 p.m. Tionne, in his statement, corroborated Delson’s alibi. Carcamo, in his statement, said that at the time of the incident he was at home all day with his common-law wife and he was ill.

A witness, Frank Caliz, testified on behalf of the three men and said that he was at the scene at the time of the incident, and that the perpetrators were not the Paguada brothers and Carcamo. But Justice Pilgrim did not believe his story.

The Crown was represented by Crown Counsel Romey Wade.