Tonight 21-year-old Deandre Guiffaro is awaiting sentencing for the killing of Gabriel Guzman Cruz. He was charged for murder but today pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Cruz, a Mexican property manager, was murdered on December 7th 2020 in the Seine Bight home where he was caretaker. He arrived home and caught burglars in the act - that's when a struggle ensued which saw Cruz stabbed three times and chopped as many as 10 times.
Guiffaro, then 19 years old, gave police a caution statement which he said in court was forced out of him - but no proof was offered of this.
Guiffaro didn't act alone but so far he is the only man ever to be charged in the killing. Today his attorney Norman Rodriguez spoke to our news cameras and detailed his client's version of Guzman Cruz's brutal death.
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney-At Law
"He was charged with murder and he offered a plea of manslaughter which was accepted by the crown and further by the supreme court of Belize. From the disclosure and included in that disclosure the caution statement that was given he was accused of murdering a Mexican national who was living in Belize and as a result of that when the police did their investigation he was the person who was charged with the murder of the Mexican national."
"The evidence showed that someone entered the house of Mr Guzman and he came upon them, they ended up in a struggle over, I believe it would have been more than 10 minutes and he received three stab wounds, chops to his head, and I believe blunt force trauma was also included in the hat was diagnosed as his cause of death."
Guiffaro is set to be sentenced on the 3rd of May and his attorney has indicated that they will apply for mitigation to see whether his jail sentence can be minimized.
