And while no one has been charged for that shooting, today in Cayo, a 17 year old was charged for the murder of 15 year old Alex Valdez. As we reported Valdez was stabed to death on Sunday night - allegedly by two other teens who were his friends. Two of those friends were detained, but last night the 16 year old was sent home without a charge - while today the 17 year was arraigned on a murder charge. That has enraged the family because they say the post mortem showed that most likely two persons stabbed Alex Valdez to death. Father of the deceased Albert Neal, who was so calm when he spoke to us at the morgue yesterday - was in a very different mood when we spoke to him by phone from Cayo this afternoon:
Albert Neal - Father of Deceased
"I didn't have any problems when the law arrested the two guys. Whatever the DPP send down here, I don't understand it and I don't appreciate it. Our jurisdiction is getting into a system where it is turning into a pain. I mean, what next pain do we have to go through where we are grieving and we have to bury our love one. Now this guy, he walked away clean from being charged as an accomplice, and this is not right. I mean, this my son that I have to bury. I am telling you that he will walk with him going into Salvador, because he is not from here."
Jules Vasquez
"Now, Albert, as things stand you feel that the murder prosecution for your son's death will fall apart?"
Albert Neal
"Well it rings a bell. From the moment you are letting loose a link off the chain, that means you are short of a complete chain; the chain isn't complete again. These two persons committed a crime, and I want to see them both charged, and after that down the road, they see what they are going to do and decide who is the one fully in charge of the actual damage."
Jules Vasquez
"Because there are no other witnesses, they had to try to us one of them as a witness against the other. Without that, there is no other witness, except the 15 year-old who was killed - your son who was killed?"
Albert Neal
"But what I'm saying, Jules, is that the neighbors around there - even the lady that help with the cooking for the hospitals - they saw both of them running from the site."
We were unable to reach the DPP Cheryl Lynn Vidal to find out why one of the suspects was released without a charge. Speculation is that he may have agreed to be a witness for the crown - but the family fears that he'll skip town.
