4 months ago, we told you how the Court of Appeal reversed the murder acquittals of the accused killers Orel Leslie, Tyron Meighan, and Brandon Baptist and ordered them into custody. The court ordered that they must stand a retrial. They disagreed and so they Called on Belize's highest court, the Caribbean Court of Justice to intervene on their behalf.
Well today, the Caribbean Court of Justice did just the opposite; it affirmed the decision of the Court of Appeal. This means the trio must face a second full trial for the murder of 28 year-old James Noralez.
Their trial without jury in October of 2015 was presided over by Justice Troadio Gonzalez. The DPP's Office showed that they lured Noralez out to the junction of Fabers Road and George Price Highway, and that's where they allegedly shot and killed him.
Noralez was allegedly targeted because the accused believed that he was acting as a police informer.
In that case, the judge upheld a no-case submission made on behalf of Leslie, Meighan and Baptist. DPP Cheryl-Lynn Vidal disagreed with the outcome of the case, and she appealed it in March of this year.
When the court heard her reasons, it reversed the acquittal and both Leslie and Meighan were taken back into custody with Baptist, who was already on remand.
So, that led to today's hearing before the CCJ, where defense attorneys Anthony Sylvestre and Bryan Neal made an application before the court for special leave to appeal the Court of Appeal's decision. The panel of judges heard their reasons, and at the end, they refused to grant that leave to appeal.
This morning, DDP Vidal spoke with us outside of court. Here's what she and the defense attorneys had to say after the hearing:
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal - Director of Public Prosecutions
"The applications were dismissed and the order of the court below, the court of appeal has been confirmed and so all 3 accused will be retried."
Anthony Sylvestre, attorney
"We weren't successful, but the bringing of the application was nonetheless of great significance to all persons who are charged with very serious crimes, because as you would recall since 2011, there has been an amendment to two of our legislations which now makes it mandatory where a person is charged with murder, for that person to actually be tried by a judge alone. And as my learned friend was explaining to the honorable Justice of the Caribbean Court of Justice in court that there were in our view no guidance that was given in respect to how a trial judge is to approach - when during the course of a trial, an accused or an accused counsel form to view that he or she ought not to be subjected to answering to a charge and so it was a very important application because that is a very important legal principle that affects hundreds of persons who are in the criminal justice system."
Reporter
"This is obviously an outcome that the prosecution was looking for right?"
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal - Director of Public Prosecutions
"Certainly. We maintained at the trial that there was sufficient evidence to call the accused to answer to the charges. The judge disagree with us and where there is that kind of disagreement, if we feel strongly, the law allows us to take it before a higher court and we did so. We succeeded at the higher court. We thought that was the end of that and that they would simply been retried, but there were these applications, because of course the defense is of a different view, but the court agreed with our position that there was in fact sufficient evidence to call upon them to answer to the charge and so the matter will go back to the supreme court before a different judge obviously to be tried."
Reporter
"Can you give your personal observations as to the way they received those arguments from the applicants themselves?"
Cheryl-Lynn Vidal - Director of Public Prosecutions
"I think that you are going to interview the applicants' attorneys' right after and you can ask them those questions. But it's significant that the court did not even call upon the respondent to answer."
Reporter
"The responses of the judges, it appear that they weren't very receptive to the grounds for which you all made the application."
Anthony Sylvestre, attorney
"The thing about it is that a lot of it had to do with an evaluation of the evidence and as the learned justices of the Caribbean Court of Justice pointed out that they would not want to say much on the evidence, because it has the potential of prejudice in the retrial, but a lot basically hunch on that, but I think the legal principles are what we were also very much interested in being establish and being set by the court."
Bryan Neal, Attorney for the Defendants
"In Belize they have erased over a thousand years of legal history in that we no longer have trials by jury for serious offences. Now yes the application for leave has been refused by the Caribbean Court of Justice, but in making a written judgement, they can make obiter dictum statements about the principles that we have raised and one of the principles we raised is the fact that now that a trial judge is sitting alone, does he have to give reasons for decisions that he makes? Jury's don't give reasons, you see them get up, what say you the verdict guilty or not guilty. What is the proper role of a judge now that parliament has stop jury trials for murder and attempted murder?"
Though Neal and Sylvestre were unsuccessful today, this was the first time in their careers that they got the opportunity to argue their case before the CCJ Judges.
DPP Vidal told us that the retrial will be placed on a list of pending cases for the Supreme Court, and it is the judge who will decide when the case will be heard. All 3 men remain at the Belize Central Prison on remand while their case goes through the process.
