In March of 2011, 69 year old watchman Julian Lara was brutally murdered inside a bar on the Bullett Tree road named "The Spot." He was tied up and stabbed to death. Police said Shaheem Espat did it; he had gone into the bar to buy cigarettes just before the murder occurred. Police said they found him with blood on his shirt - which turned out to be type O - same as the deceased. But, his attorney established that type O is a very common blood type and that bloodstains could remain on a person's shirt for years.
But he also gave a confession statement, so what about that? Well, Espat told Justice Moore that he never gave the statement freely and that the police had told him to help himself so he'd better talk.
So, with no caution statement and no compelling evidence, Justice Moore found him not guilty. But he was not free to go. He was taken back to the Belize Central Prison to finish off a jail term he received for a drug related offense. That sentence will finish in May of this year - which will make it four years he spent in jail.
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