Tonight, the news that's broken hearts all over Belize is the disappointing end to the case of 8-year-old accident victim Gabriela Corrales.
Gabriela was tragically knocked down and killed in 2019 as she walked her bike across a Belmopan pedestrian ramp.
An unlicensed, uninsured Guatemalan minor was charged for her death. He got out on $10,000 bail shortly after, and by September of this year neither the police department nor the DPP was able to locate this case file.
And while that mishap had already coloured the case with a doubtful resolution, it all came to a head today when Gabriela's mother appeared in court to request no further court action in the matter. It's a very different position to one she held at the time of her child's death. Back then she was asking for justice.
(June 19, 2019)
Ana Ramirez - Mother "The father of the child is broken as well and I spoke to him, we spoke last night, and I guess they were thinking that I would retaliate against them, that is something that of course I wouldn't do. He keeps asking me to accept his support and he asks that anything I need I should inform him and he will take care of the situation but I also want him to understand, I told him to understand that at this point I cannot think anything, I cannot be the one to take that as to tell him whatever I need. I just feel that I need my baby back. I ask the police and the prosecutor and last night I was there and I said sir, all I am asking for is that justice gets done because you need to look at the fact that this is a minor who shouldn't have been driving. Careless parents, careless boy but again, the father says he did not know that the boy was out, so that is all I ask. I also asked him because he spoke to me and asked me to have mercy on his son, to forgive his son. I explained to him that I have nothing to forgive him, god will deal with that but I told him that, all I ask for him to do is to leave the child to be penalized for what he did. So, I said just leave him to have the law do what they're supposed to do and that's all I'm asking."
The minor was represented by Attorneys Hurl Hamilton and Hector Guerra. Police cannot pursue a case of this nature without a complainant.
