BELIZE CITY, Wed. Feb. 23, 2022– Yesterday, in the court of newly appointed Supreme Court judge Ricardo Sandcroft, nolle prosequi rulings led to the dismissal of murder charges against two men accused of being involved in separate incidents of homicide.

One of the two men, 25-year-old Joel Choco, was charged in 2017 for the murder of 27-year-old Windell Gibson and attempted murder of Karron Santos. Both Gibson and Santos were at the Conch Shell Bay Fish Market when shots were fired at them by two men who rode up on a motorcycle. Gibson died as a result. Choco had been on remand at the Belize Central Prison for four years for charges related to that incident prior to being released yesterday, while the charges against the man accused of being his accomplice, Orlando Salazar, had been withdrawn in 2019.

The other man who was freed after a Supreme Court hearing yesterday is Sherman Rodney, who was accused of beating 35-year-old Lloyd Augustine to death back in 2014 at a house on Doris Brooks Street in Belize City. Augustine died several days later from the injuries he received.. Rodney had reportedly made previous attempts to get the case thrown out last year but was unsuccessful.

No reasons were given in the oral judgment presented by Justice Sandcroft for the dismissal of charges against the two men.