Seven Years in Prison for Two Men Guilty of 2019 Attempted Murder

Two men charged in connection with a shooting back in 2019 have been sentenced to seven years in prison. Twenty-six-year-old Avery Baine and twenty-three-year-old Mark August, appeared in the High Court of Belize before Justice Ricardo O’Neil Sandcroft, where they pleaded guilty to two counts each of attempted murder. In his ruling, Justice Sandcroft said that the starting point for their sentence should have been ten years, but he took into account their early guilty plea and reduced the sentence. Their sentences will also run concurrently, leaving them with only seven years total to serve. Their attorney, Oscar Selgado, pleaded with Justice Sandcroft to deliver a non-custodial sentence, saying that the men could be rehabilitated. Crown Prosecutor Robert Lord argued that august and Baine had been terrorizing the brothers and that the situation could have been fatal if one of the victims did not have a licensed firearm. Ultimately, Justice Sandcroft ruled that a non-custodial sentence or any prison sentence below seven years would be a miscarriage of justice. The men were charged for shooting at brothers Brenton and Calbert Budd on February 23, 2019.