Two men who were picked up during the State of Emergency are now remanded to prison for the murder of a police officer. PC Dylan Anthony was shot dead near the Roaring Creek Bridge last month, a part of a string of murders that triggered the SOE. A number of villagers were detained, and today, the police charged 29-year-old Hugh Middleton and 19-year-old Marlon Gideon.
But their families say that while they know these men have caused trouble in the past, they did not kill PC Anthony. Middleton's murder trial recently ended, where he walked free of the charge, and Gideon is a teenage thief but his mother says he's not a killer.
Today Courtney Menzies went west to hear from the families. Here is that story.
It's been 17 days since Police Constable Dylan Anthony's death, and police have charged the two men they believe committed the crime. This morning, 29-year-old Hugh Middleton and 19-year-old Marlon Gideon were arraigned in court and remanded.
However, these men were already in prison, after being picked up under the State of Emergency.
For Middleton, he'd only tasted freedom for about a week after he was in prison for more than 2 years on a murder charge, for which he was found not guilty.
And in the case of Anthony's murder, the families of both men say their sons are innocent.
Jaqueline Mendez, Mother of Marlon Gideon
"My son did not murder anybody. I'm a single mother, I raised my son, I know my son, my son might not be the perfect kid, but I know my son won't take anybody's life."
"I'm begging to the media and the people out there and Mr Chester, please make the police do their job because this isn't right to be sending innocent, my son is only 19 years old. He could look up his police sheet and see if he sees Marlon Gideon, to see what Marlon Gideon goes to police station for. He'd fight, threaten words, or that but not for any murder."
Jenny-Lee, Common-Law Wife of Hugh Middleton
"I just want the media to know that my common-law Hugh is being wrongfully accused of murder. I know for a fact that he didn't do it. He was with me when the incident occurred."
"I feel that the police department has something against him because he just won a murder case so anything, well, I believe that when he came out that if anything should happen in Roaring Creek that I know that the police would want to pick him up because of his background but he came out and he wanted to do better for his family, for his kids, he has three kids, two going to school and… [cries]"
So why - if these men are innocent - are the police going after them? Middleton's family believes it's because he just beat a murder rap.
In Gideon's case, his mother said the intended target of the murder fingered her son.
Voice of: Stephanie Alarcon, Sister of High Middleton
"He just got out of the prison, probably for a week, and when he got out for a week, they're accusing him of gang violence, which doesn't make sense, if he's in jail for almost three years."
"He got another chance at life, and you're refraining him so you don't want him to have another chance at life, that's what I see."
"His history might not be clean but everybody has the same thing, nobody has a perfect slate, so for them to just keep on targeting him, they're trying to create a monster."
Jaqueline Mendez, Mother of Marlon Gideon
"I recently spoke to the person. They shot up his house on a Thursday night when all this was happening, a Thursday night. The Friday evening after work, I went to the person and I asked him, does my son have anything to do with this? He looked me in my face and said no, he said."
"He knows to his heart, he told the police man when I went, oh it's you who wanted to kill me. You can't tell someone that you wanted to kill me if you don't see that person."
Courtney Menzies:
"So he accused your son."
Jaqueline Mendez, Mother of Marlon Gideon
"He accused my son, he's telling the police man that it's this person. It's my son, I told him, how will you say it's my son, look how long my son is out here. Don't you think if my son wanted to kill you, he would have killed you long time?"
Courtney Menzies:
"Is it possible that your son does some of these things without your knowledge? You can't see what he does all day and nobody stone empty mango tree."
Jaqueline Mendez, Mother of Marlon Gideon
"I understand you, and that's why I'm telling you, I'm saying it, my son isn't perfect, my son isn't a murderer. My son might go and take something, well have it at the station and say he's a thief, that's my son. I'm not sugarcoating it and pretty it up for anybody but to make Mr Chester come and say my son was riding a cycle with somebody else to kill a man? No man, that's pass the mark."
And both families claim that these men did not know each other, and were never seen hanging out.
Middleton's common-law wife explained that he handed himself in for questioning after the police said they'd release him after 48 hours. But instead, he was carted off to prison and later charged with murder.
Now, after raising three kids for almost three years without him, his wife must do it again.
Jenny-Lee, Common-Law Wife of Hugh Middleton
"For him to go back to prison for a murder charge, it's not easy. I am a single mother and I try my best for my kids with the little help that he was going to do for his family, that would have been something great on my part or release a little burden but it's just the way the system works, you can't beat the system, you can't beat Chester, you can't Cheryl Lynn Vidal, none of them you can't beat, it's just how the system is messed up."
"I just want the family of Dylan Anthony know that High Middleton is innocent, he did not do that, he was not the triggerman."
