Forty three year old prison inmate and career criminal Basil Willis a.k.a "ET" - who has thirty-one previous convictions dodged a big number 33 today when he got off a major burglary charge.
ET was accused of breaking into the Western Union office on Coney Drive and stealing a metal safe with $39,466.87 in Belize currency and $5,531 in US currency, a total of over fifty thousand Belize dollars.
After she closed the case for the prosecution, Crown Counsel Thalia Megan Francis submitted that from the evidence it appears that the accused does not have a case to answer to. Justice Lucas told her that she did the right thing. He said that the evidence of Identification was poor and there was no evidence of the money that was stolen. He then directed the jury of 7 men and 2 women to return a formal verdict of not guilty. Willis is serving a sentence of 2 years for his 13thconviction for pipe possession.
The aggravated burglary occurred around 1 a.m on August 29, 2009. Ray Villagran, the security guard who was on duty at Western Union office at the time, was the chief witness for the prosecution. Villagran at first refused to testify. But faced with the possibility of going to jail if he did not, Villagran took the witness stand and said that a man came from behind the building and held him up at gunpoint. Villagran said he only got a fleeting glance of the person when he was made to lie face down on the ground. His only description was that the man had dreads. The money that was on the safe was 39 thousand, four hundred and sixty six dollars and eighty four cents Belize currency and five thousand, five hundred and thirty one dollars US currency. Willis was not represented by any attorney.
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