He was accused of murdering a police officer in broad daylight in downtown Belize City on Christmas Eve and after three hours of deliberations, this afternoon a jury had one word for Chadwick DeBride - "guilty." That's right, the 26 year old was today convicted of killing Constable Nedi Reymundo on December 24th of 2004 in downtown Belize City.
Crown counsel Merlene Moody prosecuted Debride and her star witness was court marshall Frank Mendez who heard the shot and saw the constable fall. Reymundo had just left a barbershop at the corner of Bishop Street and West Canal. Mendez
says he saw Debride fleeing the scene with a gun in his hand. A second witness also testified seeing Debride running from the crime scene with a gun in his hand. Both picked out Debride in an ID parade.
Debride was defended by attorney David Morales. Morales had made a no case submission in which he claimed that the identification parade wasn't sufficient evidence. Trial Judge Troadio Gonzalez denied the request.
Debride gave a statement from the dock in which he claims at the time of the murder he was at his mother's house playing video games with his brother. The jury didn't buy it and the 8 men and 4 women deliberated for three hours before returning with the guilty verdict….
Chadwick Debride will be sentenced on July 5th. This is his second trial for the murder. He went on trial in August of 2006 but the trial was aborted because a juror was involved in a traffic accident.
