7 News Belize

Man Freed After Second Re-Trial
posted (November 15, 2018)

After spending 9 years on remand at the Belize Central Prison, 27 year-old Warren Lewis is free tonight. A jury of 8 women and 4 men has acquitted him in a second re-trial of the 2009 murder of 22 year-old Alberto Allen.

Allen was found dead on August 18, 2009 at a dump site, which was located at mile 4 on the George Price Highway. His killing was particularly gruesome; his throat was slashed, he suffered a gunshot to his back, and his killer or killers rammed a piece of stick down his throat. 

Crown Counsel Rene Montero prosecuted the case, and his main piece of evidence against Lewis was a caution statement that he gave to police. In this confession, Lewis allegedly admitted to police that he killed Allen. Ballistics evidence also indicated that the bullet removed from Allen’s body matched the expended shells which were found at the crime scene, and police also matched the slug and the shells to a .380 pistol that was found in a car that Lewis was driving. Police arrested him the day after Allen’s body was found, and this weapon was found in the search of the vehicle he was in.

In his defense, Lewis gave a statement from the dock asserting that he gave the statement under duress. He said that the investigating officer, Nicholas Palomo, beat him into giving this statement, and that another senior officer promised him that he would avoid getting into trouble if he cooperated. 

Palomo was unable to testify and defend himself against Lewis’ allegation of police brutality and coercion because he passed away earlier this year. A transcript of his statement, which he gave during Lewis’ first re-trial, was admitted into evidence against Lewis. 

The jury of 12 deliberated for just 3 hours yesterday, before they returned in front of Justice Marilyn Williams to announce that they had found Lewis not guilty. 

The first trial against Lewis, and his co-accused, Cordel Flores, was held in 2013, but it was aborted at the time because a juror listening to the case made an improper comment, which was brought to the attention of the presiding judge. This juror had decided, even before all the evidence from the prosecution was presented, that both men had a winning case. In the second trial, which was held in 2015, that jury acquitted Cordel Flores of Allen’s murder, but when it came time to decide on Lewis’s guilt or innocence, the case resulted in a hung jury. That’s when a second re-trial was ordered for Lewis alone. 

In this latest re-trial, Lewis was represented by attorney Darrell Bradley.

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