Police constable turned convicted killer, Sheldon Arzu, will have to wait until Monday to find out his sentence. Last Thursday a jury convicted Arzu of manslaughter for the 2003 shooting death of Reuben "Pony" Alarcon inside the Caye Caulker Police Station.
Today the Police Department's Chaplain Inspector Dinsdale Thompson and Arzu's primary school principal Dale Guzman made pleas for leniency to Justice Troadio Gonzalez. Inspector Thompson spoke of the "vibrant" recruit he met at the Training Academy in 2000. Thompson, who is a now a theology teacher at SJC, described Arzu as "quiet but mild mannered" as a primary school student in Georgetown Village in Stann Creek. He noted that Arzu was the valedictorian of his graduating class from Lynam College.
The jail sentence for manslaughter runs from 10 years to life. For some context, earlier this year when private Giovanni Guiterrez and Special Constable Dennis Palacio were convicted killing of Aaron Mariano in the line of duty, they each got 10 years.
