7 News Belize

B’zean Caught In Melchor For Alleged Cell Phone Theft
posted (February 1, 2016)
Tonight, 25 year-old Belizean Kayla Adriana Sanchez is being held in a Guatemalan Prison, located in San Benito, Peten. She's being accused of committing an aggravated robbery to steal a cellular phone.

Information to 7News is that she went to Melchor this weekend, and somewhere in the Central Park in that Guatemalan Town, she was surrounded and detained by a group of residents who say that she stole a cellular phone. Luckily the police saw the commotion and immediately took her into custody before the citizen's arrest turned into a mob. We understand that she was supposedly caught with the cellular phone and a knife, which she was trying to use to pry open the device.

The Belizean Ministry of Foreign Affairs was notified after she was detained and diplomat Said Guerra has been doing his very best to make sure that she is not mistreated. The police in Melchor wanted to transfer her from Melchor to Flores, Peten last night, but Guerra intervened and insisted that they wait until today to transfer her. She was supposed to appear before a judge in Flores, Peten, but our information is that she never got her arraignment.

Guerra told us that he is trying all that he can do to get her an attorney and a proper arraignment, and he is checking if the authorities have the right to send her to jail without being arraigned. It is expected that she will be taken from the Guatemalan Prison, which is described to us as something similar to the Belize Central Prison, where she is to be given a hearing before a judge.

We understand that she could be facing jail time if convicted, and the Ambassador told us that Sanchez's story is that she was falsely accused. We'll keep following her story.

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