60 year-old Salvadoran Nicolas Guevara has been on a life sentence at the Belize Central Prison after he was convicted murder. But on Tuesday, October 2, Chief Justice Kenneth Benjamin will have to decide a a new sentence that is more appropriate. That’s because the Caribbean Court of Justice has scrapped mandatory life sentences, in the appeal of Belizean Gregory August.
Guevara was remanded for the murder of Marcos Antonio Tzul, which happened on November 4th, 1992. He was tried and convicted in Supreme Court of Tzul’s murder on December 16th, 1993, and he was sentenced death. He spent 7 years on death row before his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment.
So, now that his sentence has to be reconsidered, Chief Justice Benjamin scheduled a hearing today in which he heard submissions from his attorney, Illiana Swift, and Crown Counsel Sherigne Rodriguez. Swift submitted to the court that a 25 year-old sentence would be more appropriate. Guevara has been in prison for almost 26 years now.
Tzul, the man who Guevara, is convicted of killing, was the manager of Gold Button Ranch in Orange Walk. He was ambushed and fatally shot on while he and a female employee were returning to the ranch. That female employee saw the entire attack, and she narrated it to the court in Guevara’s original trial. She said that she heard 4 gunshots, and saw Tzul fall dead to the ground. The witness then said that the men drove off with her as a hostage in her own car. They drove for about an hour and a half, before the men took turns raping her. She identified Guevara as one of the assailants.
At the trial, Guevara testified and admitted that he was at the scene when the incident occurred, but he denied any involvement in the shooting. He also corroborated the female eyewitnesses testimony that she was sexually assaulted, but again, he denied any involvement in the act. He has appealed his conviction at the Court of Appeal, but that case was dismissed. We’ll tell you about his sentence next week.
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