7 News Belize

Former BDF Soldier Executed In Gang Hit
posted (November 26, 2012)
And while that Sunday morning triple murder is the most dominating news event of the weekend - from Friday night, things had already started very badly in Belize City with another gang related murder.

Except this one was an execution. It happened around 7:30 pm - just as we were finishing up the news.

Our team responded to the scene at the junction of Faber's Road and the Western Highway and found a man dead on the ground. How he got there is the story of gang hit carried out with ruthless precision. Here's more:..

Jules Vasquez reporting
This is where 28 year old James Norales's life came to an end on Friday night - at the junction of Faber's Road and the Western Highway.

He had been executed, shot multiple times in the head, neck and body and left in the middle of the road. Police recovered 7 expended shells from the scene.

Police believe he was friendly with the men who killed him - and investigators say, he had been socializing with them at Orel Leslie's home in Linda Vista right before he died.

Raphael Martinez, Police Press Officer
"24 year old Brandon Baptist, unemployed of a Police Street address, 24 year old Orel Leslie, laborer of #7 Linda Vista site Belize City and a 19 year old Tyron Meighan, unemployed of #27 Banak Street Belize City were jointly charge for the crime of murder of James Norales."

They believe those same men lured him into the car - and then threw him out and shot him to death on the road.

His father - who agreed to speak with us off camera, said it's devastating:

Voice Of: Father of James Norales
"You got to be real in life. When you get that kind of news - it's one of the worst thing you could ever think about - it like a freight truck just hit you. You feel empty, you feel lost - you don't know if you should stand up or lay down. You don't have any comfort zone. I don't wish this thing on anybody else. I wish I was the last person to feel this way because at the end of the day, this is too much."

Street reports say there was a hit out on Norales because he was linked to ammunition find the GSU made in this swamp in the area known as Gungulung.

His father says he did his best but the young man chose his own path:

Voice Of: Father of James Norales
"That child has no criminal from 0-18. I raised him military style because I am a retired military personnel. I give him the best. I even have him join the BDF. He reached to the rank of lance corporal and he was doing well. Somehow he just decide that he is a man now - I don't have any control on how to talk to him - the belt that I used to lash him before he was 18 don't exist anymore. He decided to do what he has to do. I talk to him, I told him to listen to me because I am his father and I want the best for him. I told him that this is not working for him - this will never work for you - this has never worked for anybody before, don't put yourself in that kind of situation because the consequences - you cannot take it. I told him that this is not getting him anywhere and I know that he can do better than this. There is not any magic button that you can press to make everything gets better. I know that other people are out there who can make this work out for those young boys because this - the young boys on the streets are dying and the parents are dying home slowly within themselves."

Now they have to bury a son and a father of 3.

Voice Of: Father of James Norales
"Anywhere how you look at it - it is what it is, he is dead. I have to bury the man and life goes on."

24 year-old Orel Leslie, 19 year-old Tyrone Meighan, 27 year-old Brandon Baptist were all arraigned before Senior Magistrate Sharon Frazer this morning for murder.

Due to the nature of the offence, they were remanded until their next court date, which is set for January 7, 2013.

Tyrone Meighan has been in the news many times before - and was quite boisterous at court today. Orel Leslie doesn't fit that profile; he is the son of the deceased Homer Leslie, the owner of Safeway Drugstore.

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