24 year-old Abimael Pott, who was accused of murder for the 2011 killing of 19 year-old Shamir Gonzalez, has pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the court room of Justice Colin Williams.
It was the deadly school-yard brawl which played out on the compound of the Louisiana Government school in Orange Walk Town.
Gonzalez, a student at the school, was killed when he was bludgeoned to the back of the neck with a metal pipe. Pott, who was 17 years-old at the time, had intervened in the fight on behalf of his brother.
In May 2014, he was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. He appealed his conviction at the Court of Appeal, and his attorney, Hubert Elrington, convinced the court that the conviction and sentence should be set aside and a retrial should be ordered.
At the start of the retrial today, Pott, who was only 17 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty to manslaughter instead. He is back at the Belize Central Prison awaiting a sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for June 27.
He is represented by Attorney Anthony Sylvestre, while the prosecution is represented by Crown Counsel Kileru Awich.
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