Two Arrested in Monday Night’s Double Murder, Remanded to Prison

Police investigators have gathered sufficient evidence in Monday night’s double murder which have led to two arrests.  Accused killers, Jovannie Jones and Jerwin Segura were shackled and under heavy police guard as they exited the Belize City Magistrate’s Court this morning.  The two were jointly charged and arraigned before Chief Magistrate Jayani Wegodapola for two counts of murder.  With the charge being an indictable offence, pleas were not taken from them and they were remanded to the Belize Central Prison until March 25.  Interestingly, neither Jones nor Segura had legal representation.  Jones, a car dealer along with his associate, Segura are men of the Burrell Boom community who are now facing many years in prison as they await the court  proceedings and a possible trial.  Investigators were able to make the arrests within 24 hours of the homicide after several surveillance footage were collected.  Police Commissioner Chester Williams provided an update on the course the investigation, although he would not get into the specifics of the evidence.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Police conducted investigation right away and a few minutes later two suspects were detained in a vehicle that was seen parked right behind the vehicle that the two deceased persons were in at the particular time or immediately after the shooting or immediately after the persons were found in the vehicle dead. Other evidential material obtained by investigators during the course of investigation led to the arrest of two individuals, one of whom is a car dealer and the other is an associate of that car dealer. Those persons were charged yesterday and I believe they were taken before the courts today where they were remanded to prison. The family will be given an update by the police tomorrow so that they can know exactly what the police have against those two individuals. There are several other things that we’re doing, like looking at the phones and analysis of calls and different things that we’ll be doing, getting information from the cell phones and other places that we believe we can get things of evidential value. We take this matter very seriously and we have assured the family members that we will do all we can to ensure that we gather the best possible evidence to secure a conviction, come trial day.”

As we have reported previously, investigators have concluded that the murders of 37-year-old, Felix Martinez and 40-year-old, Adelita Gillett, were financially motivated.  Commissioner Williams spoke of the 35 thousand dollars that the couple had allegedly paid to Jones for a vehicle deal that never materialized.

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “Investigation showed that the two persons who were murdered had given, I believe, $35,000 to the car dealer who is a guy, Jones, from Burrell Boom Village. And I think two months had passed and he had not brought in the vehicle that he had promised to bring for him. They then sought to recover back their money from him. They even went to the extent of going to a lawyer and the lawyer sent a demand letter to Mr. Jones. It can be reasonably inferred and even substantiated by what the two suspects have said that they lured these two individuals to that area where the murder actually took place. Now, there are certain things that they are saying that investigators do not believe and the facts or the circumstances on the ground prove otherwise to what they are saying. So there are several inconsistencies in their account that they gave to the police. Nonetheless, that’s a matter for investigators to look at. And again, just to reiterate my point that we are doing as much as we can to make sure we secure sufficient evidence for a successful prosecution. As the two individuals who were killed, these are not criminals, these are not troublemakers. That young man is a very young promising young man, very mannerly, have a very nice profession. The lady, very nice and humble woman, so I don’t see what kind of threat they could have been to anybody. I don’t think they can kill a fly.”

Martinez and Gillett leave behind a 10-year-old son.