Last night's headline was about accused murder William "Danny" Mason.
He gave a captivating statement from the dock. He professed his innocence, saying that he was clueless about how Pastor Lucas' decapitated head ended up in the back of his pickup truck. Mason also stressed that Pastor Lucas - with whom he was allegedly very generous - was his close friend and that he was overcome with grief when he learned that he had been killed.
So, there is only one outstanding matter before the defense completely closes its case. Mason wants to call a US Embassy employee to testify on his behalf, but the issue is that this man is not in Belize. So, there is a process that the court has to go through to get access to this potential witness, and it may cause even more delays to the end of this trial.
Today's hearing before Justice Antoinette Moore was brief, and outside of court, we got a chance to speak to Mason's attorney about this final witness:
Dexter Todd - Attorney for William Mason
"The witness is out of the jurisdiction. There is a process that we need to adopt - which we have adopted - to get the witness to submit a statement and to see if, from there, whether we will invite the court to have the witness give evidence via Skype. So, it's not a challenge. The witness - and there is no indication that we have now, that the witness is not available. All we know is that the witness is not in the jurisdiction, and we're making every attempt to get that witness."
Reporter
"We aren't educated on the law, but, we've been listening to the case, and we've heard the evidence produced by the prosecution. And in Mr. Mason's testimony, it appears as though he did not address some of those evidence to either present a rebuttal or to show to the court that that particular evidence is not relevant to him specifically."
Dexter Todd
"I want to make this very clear. Mr. Mason's defense started from the time he was arrested in this matter. He has maintained his innocent in the matter. Mr. Mason's case doesn't start when he gets up to say this is what actually occurred. Mr. Mason's case started from the time the state started to produce evidence, and defense counsels were - in all attempts, to put forward his case. So, his case doesn't really need him to address every single issue. Because every single issue presented in the state's case might not have been directly connected to Mr. Mason."
The trial will continue next Wednesday when updates should be forthcoming on whether or not this witness will be able to give evidence in this trial.
Email
Print