7 News Belize

Jury Deliberates Into Night
posted (January 22, 2015)
Right now, a jury of 9 women and 3 men are deliberating the fates of accused murderers Cordel Flores and Warren Lewis, who police believed tortured and then killed Alberto Braddick Allen in August 18, 2009.

Viewers may remember that it was as very gruesome killing where Allen was taken to a feeder road off mile 4 on the Western Highway. There, his killers then forced him to lay on his stomach, and he was shot in the back. His throat was also slashed, and a piece of stick was then rammed down his throat.

25 year-old Cordel Flores 23 year-old Warren Lewis were charged for the murder, and they have been on trial before Justice Troadio John Gonzalez for the past month and a half. Crown Counsel Sheneiza Smith is THE prosecutor; Lewis is being represented by attorney Oscar Selgado, while Flores is being represented by attorney Alifa Elrington-Hyde.

Crown Counsel Smith led the prosecution where 3 witnesses testified that Lewis admitted under caution that he shot Allen but he didn't die immediately, so Lewis, then slit Allen's throat and then shoved the stick down his mouth. There was also a caution statement produced as evidence in the trial in which Lewis admits that he did it.

At this point, Lewis' attorney, Oscar Selgado disputed the validity of this oral admission and caution statement. He stated that his client gave the confession after his client was induced by Senior Superintendent Alford Grinnage. Selgado submitted that Grinage promised Lewis that he would assist him through the case because Grinage knew Lewis's father. Selgado submitted further that Grinage allegedly physically threatened Lewis thereby forced Lewis to do the officer's bidding for fear of his life.

In the end, Justice Gonzalez admitted the statement into evidence.

In his defence, Lewis gave an unsworn and unchallenged statement from the dock saying that he did not kill Allen. According to him, on the day in question, he found a man sitting inside the vehicle. Lewis claims that the man then pointed a gun at him and ordered that he drive to Fabers Road. When they arrived at an undisclosed location, he was ordered to stop, and that's when 2 men he did not know, entered the car and placed a canvas wrapping what looked to be a human body in the vehicle with them.

He continued that the men ordered him at gunpoint to drive up the road, and when they arrived at the feeder road off mile four on the Western Highway, they dumped the blue canvas and what looked like the body in that area. They then ordered him to drive them back to Fabers Road, and that's when they got out.

Viewers may remember that a huge break in the case back in 2009 was when police made a routine traffic stop in the Port Loyola area, and that's when they found both men in the vehicle. They also found a .380 pistol, and one of the men had fresh blood on their hands.

Lewis said the gun did not belong to him.

The prosecution's main evidence against the men were the gun, and the blood. The blood matched that of the murder victim, and the bullet found in his body matched that as those used by the seized gun.

Both accused are on a retrial, and if the verdict arrives before the end of this newscast, we'll be sure to update you.

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