On September 5th 2003 Shawn Clother was killed in an alley off Cemetery Road in Belize City. After the shooting police arrested and charged Avondale Trumback for the killing. But by July of 2004, the case against Trumback fell apart when a statement from the principal witness, Robert Flowers, a conch fritters vendor, who himself was killed before testifying, was not admitted as evidence. The prosecution appealed the matter and the Appeal's Court ruled that not admitting the statement was a mistake in law and on June 28th Trumback was again arrested and charged for the murder of Shawn Clother.
Today Trumback was once again before the Supreme Court and again he got off, because of the same statement. His attorney Ellis Arnold said that the statement would be prejudicial to his client because it only referred to Clother by a nickname, "hog-bone" and because no I.D. parade had been done. Justice Michelle Arana accepted the submission and instructed the jury to find Trumback not guilty. With that the 25 year old Trumback was set free.
