In the early morning of Saturday, July 29th, 2017, 24 year old Daniel Sosa was fatally shot in the head as he sat in the front seat of his friend Hilmar Alamilla's Dodge pickup. They had been partying with two other men for hours before. Sosa's body was found around 5:30, dumped at a gas station. There were bullet holes in Alamilla's truck - pointing to him as the main suspect.
Alamilla who had deep political links to the Gaspar Vega camp in the UDP was considered a big man Orange Walk Town, but he was charged for murder and remanded just like anyone else.
Fast forward 5 and a half years, and his high profile trial commenced in Orange Walk town 6 weeks ago. The prosecution called 16 witnesses, but at the end of all that, the defence team of Leeroy Banner and Dickie Bradley made a no case submission. Presiding Justice Herbert Lord took over a week to consider it - and in a 40 page judgement today, he agreed that Alamilla had no case to answer for the murder of Daniel Sosa.
It's a major verdict in Orange Walk town - and when it was done, Dickie Bradley told CTV-3 why the judge made the decision he did, while Alamilla made his first brief comments on the case:
Dickie Bradley, Attorney
"The evidence against Mr. Hilmar Alamilla was like it was too weak for the judge to continue the trial. That is how it is. That is what transpired. After about 5-6 weeks of trial, the judge took off a week and a half or two weeks to go over everything that transpired and felt there is no way that I could ever allow this trial to continue and so he said to David Hilmar, I find you not guilty of the allegation and you are free to go."
Reporter
"Sir, do you feel vindicated after today's ruling?"
Hilmar David Alamilla, No Case To Answer
"All I could say miss, thank God it's over."
Dickie Bradley, Attorney
"He was in prison for 4 years."
Hilmar David Alamilla, No Case To Answer
"I just want it to be over. I gone through a lot, honestly. I don't wish anyone and this is what the media needs to report, don't judge no one if you don't know, until you get the facts, because we in society are easily to judge and that is not fair. I almost lost everything, but thank God I have life and I will continue. That's all I have to say."
Notably, one of the key witnesses who implicated Hilmar Alamilla - 21 year-old Gustavo Hernandez was fatally shot a few months after Sosa's murder. At the time, his family said he was lured to his death.
