If you watch the news any at all, you'll know that there's no bail for murder. It has happened a few times, but it's exceedingly rare, like once per decade. But, that may be changing because, tonight, 2 accused murderers are out on bail after spending several years on remand.
We start first with the case of Alton Bailey, who's been on remand for over 4 years for the October 2013 murder of George Blanco.
Bailey was initially arraigned along with Roger Hernandez and Roque Middleton for killing a 61 year old truck driver, George Blanco - so that they could rob him of $9,600.
A few months later, Bailey's attorney, Anthony Sylvestre, applied to the Supreme Court for bail. Justice Adolph Lucas denied it, but told police to strengthen their evidence against Bailey. It's been over 4 years now, and police have still not brought any additional supporting evidence against Bailey. So, when his attorney, applied to the court for bail a second time, Justice Lucas granted it yesterday in the sum of $25,000.
He left court and went home with his family after they managed to meet his bail.
The other man who got that rare bail for murder was 28 year old Joseph West Jr., a resident of Libertad Village and brother to the famous footballer Woodrow West.
Back in May of 2014, police accused him of his chopping fellow Corozal resident, 34 year-old Giovanni Borland, in the head at the end of a bar brawl that spilled into the street. 19 days later, he passed away.
West has been waiting in jail since then, and yesterday, Anthony Sylvestre applied for Supreme Court bail in front of Justice Marilyn Williams. He argued that the state has had no legal authority to hold West in prison for so many years.
The problem is that nobody knows where West's committal documents are, if indeed he was actually indicted, as was legally required. He's simply been sitting in prison for 3 years or so without the state having the proper legal basis to keep him there. When this was pointed out to Justice Williams yesterday, she granted West bail of $25,000, which he met.
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