7 News Belize

Accused Killer Of Chinese Grocer Jordan Cayetano
posted (November 17, 2016)
On the first Saturday in April of 2011, when Belize City gunmen killed two female Chinese grocers in one afternoon, it sparked an angry street protest and shutdown by the Chinese community. The women seem to have been killed for no reason - other than as a retaliation against the state by a prominent gang.

Tonight the man accused of one of those murders is free after more than 5 years on remand. 23 year old Jordan Cayetano, who was caught with a weapon and charged with the murder of 32 year old Chinese shopkeeper, Yan Ying Chen, walked out of court a free man after the Crown made a "nolle pros" motion. Prosecutor Rene Montero Jr was forced to do so after the confession statement he was relying on was ruled inadmissible by Justice John Gonzalez. In the trial without jury, Gonzalez ruled that he cannot accept the oral confession because it was given under "oppressive circumstances." Cayetano had testified that he was punched to his ribs several times, he was threatened and he was choked and shocked with an electrical cord by members of the GSU.

Witness for the Defence Police officer Ismael Westby, said that the oral confession that Cayetano gave was that he shot the Chinese woman because the police had locked up his general, Shiney Tillett. Westby said that Cayetano was asked to give a caution statement but he declined and started to cry.

But even after the confession was ruled inadmissible, the Crown had hoped it could rely on ballistic evidence but the expended shells that were collected at the scene were misplaced at the National Forensic Services.

Yan Ying Chen was shot three times at around 1:30 on April 2,2011, while she was at her shop, Rose Grocery, on King Street. Police responded quickly and caught Cayetano not far form the scene with a nine millimeter pistol. Two hours later Fei Lan Wu was also killed in her store on Faber's road. Nothing was stolen in either shooting. It came on the heels of the funeral of a prominent gang figure - which the GSU used as an occasion to make arrests of other gang members, infuriating the gang rank and file.

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