A man was killed and his wife was raped yesterday morning. A 27 year old woman residing in the outskirts of Maya Mopan Village in Belmopan visited police yesterday complaining that she had been raped and her husband had been killed. When police reached the scene they found the body of Lionel Hernandez Moralez and the motive for it is believed to be a farming dispute. 7NEWS traveled to the area today and here's the story.
Alfonso NobleReporting, [From Maya Mopan Village]
At around 11 on Monday morning police were called out to this farm some 2 miles outside of Maya Mopan village. They found the body of 33-year-old Lionel Hernando Moralez, he had been shot.
Sinquest Martinez, Investigating Officer
"A Guatemalan woman and her three kids and she told us what transpired on this farm. She said that her common-law husband was shot in front of her and her three kids. Both the deceased and his common-law went to harvest some corn and they were met by the accused Mr. Guerra and apparently he got annoyed with his corn being reaped and he had a shotgun in his hand and he brought them from the field into their land. The deceased and the accused had a word of exchange after which he was just shot."
Making matters worse is that the killer then turned the gun on Lionel's wife and at gunpoint took her through this Picado Road where he quickly prepared a bed of leaves and then raped her.
Sinquest Martinez,
"After the deceased was shot, the female was being threatened at gunpoint and she was taken from her house into the nearby bushes after which she was sexually molested."
It took the 27-year-old woman some two hours to walk out of the farm to report the matter to police. They have since picked up and charged 48-year-old Epifanio Guerra with murder and rape.
The woman has told police that Guerra and Moralez had an agreement in which Guerra was to start farming on Moralez's land and they would share the profits. Somewhere along the line that arrangement became problematic, a problem so protracted that it led to the fatal dispute.
