Two Charged in Belize City Murder Believed Linked to Retaliation

Police have arrested and charged two men for the murder of 24-year-old Luis Marin. On Saturday, officers charged 18-year-old Scorian Stuart and 23-year-old Michael Gillett, both of Belize City, with murder. Marin, a resident of Cotton Tree Village, was shot in Belize City on Tuesday, April 8. He was visiting a relative in Majestic Alley when a gunman snuck up on him and fired several shots, killing him on the spot. Police believe his murder was in retaliation for the shooting of Jamal Hyde, which occurred in Belmopan on Saturday, April 5. Commissioner Chester Williams says that Marin was a suspect in the Belmopan shooting prior to his murder, but police could not issue an official wanted poster for him due to legal reasons. 

Chester Williams, Commissioner of Police: “We are looking at that issue in Belmopan. In the aftermath of that shooting there was a lot that we did to try and avert any possible retaliation, particularly in the Belmopan, Cotton Tree and Roaring Creek area. Unfortunately you see where it happened, the retaliation took place in Belize City in an area where we did not anticipate it to occur. Nonetheless the police remain extremely vigilant in the areas of concern. We always do our best to try and avert these things from occurring but sometimes the retaliations would happen outside of where the police would have normally expected it to occur. I am happy to say that the police have made great strides in the murder investigation where the guy was killed that’s Lewis Marin was killed in the Majestic Alley area. The suspect for that matter is in custody and he should be charged today and should be appearing in court some time this afternoon. The police have been in search for him certainly and there were internal wanted, his name was circulated internally and he was wanted by the police and again we could not have put out a wanted poster because the circumstances under which the incident occurred when he were to found we would have to do an identification parade and so once we’re going to have to do identification parade in an matter it is not legally practical for us to circulated wanted posters of that person because at trial the attorneys can say the only reason the witness identified the person was because the person’s picture was on a wanted poster prior to them conducting identification parade. Again it’s a legal safeguard in place to protect the rights of accused persons so we could not have done that.”

Stuart and Gillett were arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court earlier today. No plea was taken, and they were remanded to the Belize Central Prison until June 9.