Last night, police picked up one of their most wanted fugitives: 34-year-old Ronlee Petillo, a reputed member of the George Street Gang and a man who's been charged for murder 4 times - though never convicted.
For about 20 days now, Police have been looking to charge him with the rape of a woman and aggravated assault with a weapon against another complainant. But, Police also want to question him about Tuesday's murder of 61-year-old Emert Flowers.
In a pre-holiday weekend press briefing, Commissioner Chester Williams outlined the totality of Petillo's crime profile:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Ron Lee Petillo, I must say, was one of our most wanted prisoners. He was being sought by the police for a complaint of rape made by a female, as well as an aggravated assault with a firearm, where he allegedly pulled a gun on someone. He was being sought for a number of weeks now, and the police were unable to locate him. When we had the murder of the elderly gentleman on Racecourse Street, Petillo's name was called as a possible suspect - and I made it clear, a possible suspect - in that particular incident, and from what we were made to understand, there may have been some internal rift within the George Street fraction, where the son of the now-deceased gentleman may have had some issue Petillo and his close associates. And they may have been in search of the son and could not locate the son. And so, the father paid the price. That's the information that we're getting at this time. We believe that, indeed, the incident had to do with the son, and while, yes, the son is missing, we don't think the son is dead. We believe that he went into hiding because he knew that he was being sought by his own kind."
Daniel Ortiz
"You're talking specifically about Kyle Latchman?"
Chester Williams
"Yes, Kyle Lachman - so we believe that he went into hiding to avoid the wrath of his kind. Moving forward, we anticipate that Petillo will be remanded to prison for the charges that he will be appearing before the court for today. And while he is in prison, we will further the investigation with respect to the murder, as well as looking at the whole issue of levying gang charges. We know that Petillo is a member of the George Street Gang, but as you know, these investigations are tedious, and it is not that we can go to court and say that we know that he is. We need to have evidence."
This morning police took Petillo to the Magistrate's Court where he was arraigned before Magistrate Dennis Mannan on the charges of rape and aggravated assault. Due to the nature of the offenses, no plea was taken, and he was remanded to the Belize Central Prison until March 1, 2023.
In the allegation of rape, a woman visited a police station a little more than three weeks ago and reported that she was giving Petillo a ride from a party on West Street in Belize City when he started to make sexual advances. She claimed that she was unable to leave her vehicle because Petillo threatened that he would kill her and her common-law husband.
She alleges that Petillo forced her to perform oral sex on him.
In the case of the aggravated assault, another woman reported to Police that on December 27, she was at a house on West Street, Petillo came out of an abandoned building, pulled out a firearm, cranked it, pointed it at her, and threatened that he would kill her for being a snitch. Fearing for her life, she ran behind a yard and jumped a fence to escape.
