26 year-old Cecil Castillo, who was accused of the December 2009 stabbing of 20 year-old Darwin Phillips was found not guilty of attempted murder in Justice Herbert Lord's courtroom yesterday evening.
The trial began 2 weeks ago, where the prosecutor, Crown Counsel Christophe Rodriguez, called several witnesses to testify against Castillo.
The victim, Darwin Phillips never made it to give testimony; he was killed -in a separate incident - soon after Castillo's arrest last year.
But Crown Counsel Rodriguez was able to get his written statement from 2009, admitted into evidence.
In this statement, Phillips said that he had just left his girlfriend's house at the corner of Iguana Street Extension and Elston Kerr Street.
He said that he heard Michael "Ham" Young call out his name. Young was being accompanied by Castillo and 2 other men, who escorted him into a nearby yard.
When the gate closed behind them, one of the men, who was holding a knife, allegedly grabbed him around the neck and pressed it to his skin.
Phillips said that he was able to fight with the man trying to slit his throat, and he only received a flesh wound. The knife then fell from his assailant's hand, and Phillips said that he then grabbed it and stabbed Young in the hand because Young was advancing on him.
Phillips said that he was able to temporarily escape from his assailants through the gate, but he tripped and fell. That's when one of the assailants, who he knew as "Sadeke", and who has been identified as Cecil Castillo, caught up to him and stabbed him several times.
Phillips said that Young stood over him and stabbed several other times in attempt to quote, "make sure he is dead." Unquote.
Phillips suffered as much as 9 stab wounds to the left side of the forehead, the left ear, and the left side of the shoulder and neck.
He was rushed to the hospital, where he was treated and saved from this attempt, only to be killed last year in another stabbing incident.
The jury of 6 women and 3 men didn't accept the statement by itself, and after 3 hours of deliberation, they acquitted Castillo of the charge.
Castillo will remain in police custody because he still has a murder charge in Cayo pending. He was also jointly charged with Michael "Ham" Young, who was killed when he tried to escape after committing a robbery in Belmopan last year.
