In the wake of the floods of November 2008, 21 year old Douglas Villager, George Kenny Cortez and his family were forced to move into the San Pablo Community Center after floods engulfed their home.
And that's where he was killed by a BDF soldier who was guarding the facility. The report was that Cortez was behaving drunk and disorderly and when a pair of soldiers tried to calm him down, they claim that the unarmed Cortez started advancing towards them.
They fired two warning shots but claim Cortez continued to advance and that's when Private Paulino Assi fired a third shot which hit Cortez in the in his right thigh and hit a main vein. The bullet went from Cortez' right thigh into his left leg before exiting. Cortez died the following day. A post mortem found that Cortez was shot laterally, meaning he couldn't have been advancing towards the soldier.
Private Assi was charged with manslaughter and yesterday, more than two years later, the 23 year old Private was found guilty of the charge.
It happened in the Orange Walk session of the Supreme Court where five eye witnesses testified that they saw Assi shoot Cortez with an AR-15 rifle.
A jury of 9 deliberated for three and a half hours before reaching a verdict. Justice Herbert Lord has deferred sentencing until Thursday, March 3rd, in order to give Assi's attorney, Lionel Welch time to prepare a plea for mitigation.
Assi testified that he shot Cortez because he was approaching his Lance Corporal in an aggressive manner, and had his hands in his pocket. Crown Counsel Trienia Young represented the prosecution.
