In November of 2006, a broad daylight murder on Euphrates Avenue at the height of the afternoon – stunned the city. The crime was brazen and utterly lawless, as a pair of gunmen just rolled up and opened fire on a group of young men who were hanging out in front of a home. It happened just one block away form the corner of cemetery road and Euphrates Avenue, which is a much trafficked, very busy intersection. Deportee Kevin Parks was killed and two other men were seriously injured; one of them Charlie Moss, who had run to rescue Parks remains paralyzed as a consequence of the injury he received that day.
Tonight, the two men accused of the crime, James Escarpeta seen here with his mother and Brandon Tillett are free after the case against them collapsed – and that happened because one witness got the all too familiar courtroom amnesia and another was shot hours before she was supposed to testify.
The prosecution’s case started to unravel yesterday when the first witness took the stand and told the court that she could not remember what she told police in 2006 about the shooting. Prosecutor Trienia Young asked for permission to treat her as a hostile witness but the witness said that she simply could not remember what happened on that day. Then shortly after that failed, the prosecutor learned that her second main witness was shot the night before. As we reported, Sherlett Arnold was shot in the buttocks on Monday night and the prosecutor didn’t find out until the morning that Arnold failed to show up at court to testify.
So, in front of the jury of 2 men and 10 women, young informed the court that she was forced to close her case after calling two witnesses. Justice Lucas then directed the foreman to acquit the two men of the murder. James Escarpeta who was free for the first time since late 2006 told court reporter Anita Nembhard that he didn’t do it.
Anita Nembhard,
“Where were you at the time they claim this shooting happened on Euphrates Avenue that caused Charles Moss to be crippled at this present moment and one person dead and another one was injured?”
James Escarpeta, Acquitted of Murder
“I was at my house eating my food at mid-day so I couldn’t be on the street.”
Anita Nembhard,
“What would you say to the family who tonight may be very sad about you walking since they had accused you and Mr. Tillett?”
James Escarpeta,
“Well I would just have to tell them to hold on strong to the faith and keep praying that some day they will catch these people who did this kind of crime.”
Anita Nembhard,
“And that person is definitely not you?”
James Escarpeta,
“Yes ma’am, not me.”
Mother of James Escarpeta,
“When this murder took place on the 13th of November, I and my son and my father was talking on Dean Street in front of the police station. So I don’t know why and how they will claim that he did the murder towards Kevin Parks because my son really doesn’t live in Belize, he lives in Gales Point. He just came from Gales Point which was the Friday and the shooting took place which was the Monday on the 13th of November. That is all I have to say and I thank God and I pray hard that he is here now with us once again.”
With the jury discharged Escarpata and Tillett are acquitted and cannot be re-tried for the same offence.
