Back in December 2024, Leonard Baltazar was killed after he was reportedly caught burglarizing a resort cabana on Tobacco Caye where an American couple - both hotel guests - was sleeping.
The man, Scott Taylor, chased Baltazar out of the cabana and attacked him. The case was first labeled self-defense but the police told the family that they were still investigating - since Taylor died outside the cabana.
However, 4 months later, there has been no update and so the family has come to the media. They say the case cannot be a matter of self-defense if Baltazar ran out of the room - meaning the couple was not in immediate danger. They're also concerned that Taylor was allowed to leave the country 72 hours after the incident. They spoke to us via Zoom.
Ampara Sanchez, Mother of Deceased
"Just up to yesterday, I went to the police station because I filed for a death police report for my son with Scott Taylor and it's going on to 3 months now and every time I go, I haven't gotten any feedback on the report and same way when I try to reach out to the CIB who was investigating my son's murder, it's like nobody tried to come out to answer my questions or phone calls or anything like that."
Vincent Higinio, Stepfather of Deceased
"When we spoke with Sheldon Williams, he was the investigating officer, he immediately told us that the case was closed based on a claim of self-defense so after we received the autopsy report and the autopsy report states that her son was choked by another person and the cause of death was mechanical asphyxiation. Once we received this, I called the US Embassy to get more information, they gave me the name of Corporal Depaz in the Dangriga Police Station so we went there and spoke to him, shared with him the autopsy report and also explained to him in regards to the law, I'm not a lawyer but I do know that once a person is fleeing the claim of self-defense goes out the window."
"He told us that the case had been reopened, it was never closed and ever since that conversation, we have been unable to talk to Corporal Depaz or anyone else in the Dangriga police department."
Courtney Menzies:
"How would you respond to that criticism that, well, your son was looking for it?"
Vincent Higinio, Stepfather of Deceased
"As a citizen, your responsibility is to call the police, not to pursue the intruder. You have the option but his responsibility was to call the police or to call somebody because his life was no longer in threat. He fled. Now, I'm hearing also the question about a young man making bad decisions and I believe that we all were young and we all made bad decisions at one time in our life. That doesn't deserve a death sentence."
We'll seek an update from police next week.
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