A trio of accused kidnappers walked out of the Supreme Court jubilant yesterday evening at 7:30 pm after a jury declared them not guilty. Marlon Sutherland demonstrated his satisfaction with the verdict to our camera.
It took a jury just about two hours to come up with not guilty verdict in the trial of Eugene Carter, Aaron Miller and Marlon Sutherland. The three had been accused in what at the time was an explosive case of drug related kidnapping and attempted murder.
On the night of July 15, 2003, five men went to the home of 53 year old fisherman Percival Flowers in St. Paul's Bank deep in the Belize River Valley. They gagged Flowers and his wife, and took them in a van to Lord's Bank where they shot him in the face and thigh. He only received superficial injuries and told police that they kept asking him about two bales of cocaine that they claim he found floating near his fishing camp on Alligator Caye. But Lewis maintained throughout, as she did in later media interviews, that he knew nothing about the drugs.
Police were called while the abduction was in progress, and caught four men in the area of Lord's Bank. They were initially charged for attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, keeping prohibited firearm and keeping unlicensed ammunition. In the Supreme Court, they were tried for two counts kidnapping, two counts of robbery, and use of deadly means of harm.
Prosecutor Cheryl-Lynn Branker Taitt called 12 prosecution witnesses, including the victims, while defense attorney Hubert Elrington had his clients give un-sworn statements form the dock. The trial started on June 5th and 15 days later the jury needed only two hours to come to a verdict. It was not unanimous as two jurors did not agree with the not guilty finding, but 7 did, and that majority pushed the verdict through.
As we noted, it was an explosive story at the time of first reporting because it came just one week after a triple homicide on Stake Bank Caye motivated, it is believed, by the same search for a wet drop of cocaine that had gone astray in the seas a few miles off Belize City.
