Back in May of 2022, we told you about the sentencing of Andrew Caliz, the Punta Gorda man who was accused of the murder of his wife, Nohemy Caceres.
Caliz was ultimately charged for murder and ended up pleading down to manslaughter.
His trial, like that of Kareem Martinez also took place in the court of Justice Antoinette Moore and in the end, Caliz who claimed to have accidentally shot his wife was sentenced to serve three years in jail.
It's important because it sets a possible precedent for Martinez, yet another man who says he fired a weapon but did not mean to kill.
Here's how Dickie Bradley weighed in on why one matter should be considered in relation to the other.
Dickie Bradley, Attorney-At-Law
"The point is this, the charge is Manslaughter, not manslaughter by negligence, manslaughter is the next charge under murder and for clarity, murder means that you intentionally wanted to kill and you killed, manslaughter is that you wanted to harm someone and the harm ended up causing death. Manslaughter by negligence, you are doing nonsense, you are like a driver who is going to drink and doesn't know if he is seeing two or tree images, which one is the correct one or you are driving fast or you have a gun fooling around and it goes off. That is manslaughter by negligence, I will tell you, a judge in the Supreme court who had a case from Punta Gorda in which the common law husband had his firearm on the desk and they got up out of bed, he said that his common law was stopping down picking up her clothes and when she got up she bucked against him and the gun went off. He was taken to court for Manslaughter by negligence. It was murder first but eventually, it became clear that you can't prove that he wanted to kill because they were in a semi-isolated area and he is the one that called the hospital, called the cops, called people to help her, put her in the vehicle and quickly took her, and that's not the behavior of a murder, a mmurdere would have killed the person and buried her somewhere in the background or take her and throw her somewhere around John Smith road, so the point I am making to you is that the judge in that trial had said, Oh I don't know whee we get this idea that when it's manslaughter by negligence you just pay a money and go bout you business, that isn't really how justice and the law operates, a life has been lost, that judge sentenced that person to prison and then still turned around and charged him compensation to the family, which compensation I think Javier Chan the senior crown council who lead the case, is going to bring to the attention of the judge. So, the evidence is in. In my view the evidence is strong, the judge is going to go over it, over and over as she always does and apply the law to every step of the way."
As we told you at the time of Caliz's trial, that verdict could set a precedent in the manslaughter by negligence case against Jasmine Hartin.
Again, Kareem Martinez returns to court on March 15th, likely in Belize City, when both the prosecution and the defence will make final submissions for his case.
