On December eight, 2008 the body of thirty four year old Felix Enriquez Martinez
was discovered in a pool of blood lying on a feeder road near the southern end
of Benque Viejo. A police investigation concluded that Belmopan City resident
Efrain Santiago aka Payin did it but he was a fugitive for over a year until
last week. That’s when Benque Police report that they arrested and charged
the twenty-three year old for the homicide.
He was found in the San Martin area of Belmopan on Friday night at 11:30 at
a friend’s home. At the time he carried a butcher knife. He had been seen
in the Belmopan area since November. However the motive for the killing remains
unclear. On the Monday before Felix Enriquez Martinez was murdered he was seen
around seven that evening fighting with an unidentified man.
Today authorities tell 7News they cannot say whether
or not the accused was that individual only that all indications are that Efrain
Santiago was the one who committed the murder. He was arraigned at the San Ignacio
Magistrate’s Court and remanded to the Belize Central Prison until his
next court appearance on April twenty second, 2010.
We should note that this is the second murder case in which Efrain Santiago’s
name has been mentioned. He was a suspect in the murder of Vilma Copo –
which occurred in San Martin, Belmopan in 2007 when the 23 year old victim –
Vilma Copo was stabbed 29 times and her throat was slit.
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