Last week, we told you about Renaldo Verde, the senior staffer at the GST Department Headquarters who shot 29 year-old Allen Martinez and shattered his Pelvis on San Pedro on Easter Sunday. He remains at prison tonight hoping to get bail from the Supreme Court for a single charge of dangerous harm with a firearm.
As we reported, Verde and Allen Martinez had a misunderstanding in at a hotel in San Pedro - which resulted in an altercation. Verde then pulled his licensed weapon and shot Allen in the left hip, which exited his left buttocks.
Verde's attorney, Michael Peyrefitte, filed the bail application last week Friday, and it is now before the Supreme Court to be conidered on when the matter can be heard.
And so, while he's hoping that the court will grant him bail in the near future, a man from his past is outraged that he's even being given an opportunity - which is his constitutional right - to be freed until his trial date.
Joseph Nunez is the man who Verde shot on November 13, 2004, and even though it happened 8 years and 4 months ago, Nunez remembers it as if though it was yesterday.
Nunez was never given an opportunity to tell his side of the story. However, keeping in mind that what he had to say cannot affect this current case or that past one - since the attempted murder charges were struck out for want of prosecution - he spoke to us today to provide context into Verde's apparent proclivity for use of deadly force.
Here's what he had to say about that incident:
Joseph Nunez - Prior Shooting Victim, November 13, 2004
"I was a police recruit, number 1126 Joseph Nunez. I came to Belize City on police duties, at that time we were shaking down those Chinese vendors who were selling at the time "PUP Boledo". However after about the time I worked at night, I went to the MJ's night club to socialize, a bunch of other recruits and me. Whilst there, I went to the bathroom and I met Mr. Verde inside the bathroom. I told him - well I ask him if he was finished and he replied, 'No', so I went out of the bathroom to the bar, after which I went back into the bathroom. This is about 10 - 15 minutes prior to the first time I had gone to the bathroom. Mr. Verde was there again so I went to speak to Mr. Verde. I said, 'Are you finished because I need to use the - I need to use the urinal.' So he said, 'Go ahead; I'm done - I'm done - I'm done.' So when he moved from the urinal, and I approach the urinal, and I zipped down my pants. I heard like a gun cranking, so what I did - I made an about turn, when I made an about turn, this gentleman was pointing the gun at me. So I asked him, 'I didn't do you anything. I don't know you and you don't know me,' but he didn't reply to me any at all. So what I did I just grabbed his hand and pushed it down, and I ran to the door to try to escape. The next thing that happened was that the man just fired a shot in my hand 'bang' shot me in my arm. I ran out of MJ's, got in a taxi and went to K.H.M.H. The man almost took my life and at the end of the day, he tried to take another man's life. I don't know what transpired on San Pedro between him and the gentleman, but all I'm saying is that why they will issue this man another license again after he has already committed one offence with a firearm? I never had any conversation with that gentleman any at all. I never one day meet him and ask him anything. The first time he actually saw me in person was when we went to the court the first time, besides that - well I use to see him every day because every day he pass me. He never knew me, but you see I knew him. The good book - the Bible - tells you to err is human, to forgive is divine. Vengeance is mines, says the Lord, hence the reason I didn't do him anything because I don't have that kind of mentality against anybody. God gave me another chance to live, hence the reason why I'm at where I'm at now. To my mind or to me, he does not deserve to get bail because it has occurred once - it has occurred twice and who knows maybe it might even occur again. So, to my mind, I think he does not deserve to get bail."
Nunez has pledged to the current shooting victim, Allen Martinez, to provide testimony if the court should see it as helpful to the case.
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