Twenty eight year old Nicaraguan national Evrett Mejia, charged with kidnapping and blackmail, was acquitted of both charges to day in the court of Justice Troadio Gonzalez.
The alleged kidnapping occurred around Nine P.M. on October 27th, 2005 in San Ignacio. The complainant, Adrian Lizarraga, testified that he arrived at his gate and was about to get out of his vehicle when two men appeared, one on the left side and the other on the right and both of them wore masks. Lizarraga said the man on the left side had a gun while the man on the right was armed with a knife. They put the gun to his head and told him to take them to Cristo Rey. Lizarraga said he drove into a feeder road and they told him to go to the back of the vehicle, but he refused and he offered them money but they did not take it. He said one of the men took off his mask while they were there and they both ran off into the bushes. Lizarraga's father, Pedro Lizarraga, was the complainant for the blackmail charge. Pedro testified that at around Ten P.M. on October 28th, 2005, he received a telephone call and the caller told him to hand over One hundred thousand dollars if he did not want the same thing which happened to his son yesterday happen again. The father said he agreed to pay Twenty Thousand dollars and the person called again the following day.
Pedro Lizarraga called the police and a sting operation was set up for October 31st, 2005. According to the evidence, Mejia was caught by police during the sting operation and Pedro Lizarraga identified his voice as the voice of the person who blackmailed him. Additionally, Adrian Lizarraga identified Mejia in a police line up. Mejia took the witness stand and testified that the police took him into custody and beat him. Mejia was not represented by an attorney.
The jury of five men and four women deliberated for a little over three hours before it arrived at its not guilty verdict, which was unanimous.
Senior Crown counsel Yohhanseh Cave represented the prosecution.
