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Nevis Gets 20 Years For Murder
posted (January 10, 2020)
Nevis Betancourt made headlines in 2017 when he killed 37-year-old Jose Nunez Castellanos. At the time there were questions about whether he acted in self - defense. Nonetheless, he was charged for murder, and convicted for it in April of 2019. Today in Belmopan Supreme Court, Justice Antionette Moore sentenced Betancourt to serve 20 years in prison.

In a sentencing hearing today, 5 character witnesses spoke on his behalf, and Justice Moore said she walked into the courtroom with one impression of the defendant and left with another. She said she now believes he acted out of character and in defense of his mother. She also believes he has anger issues due to past childhood traumas which made his mother a trigger point.

The charge in question goes back to July of 2017 when Betancourt used his licensed weapon to shoot and kill Castellanos who was chopping him. Eyewitnesses in the restaurant said that Jose Nunez Castellanos may have been caught off guard by Betancourt's gunshots.

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