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35-year-old John Burke is at awaiting a sentence from Justice Colin Williams after a jury of 5 women and 4 men found him guilty of dangerous harm for a beatdown inside the KHMH. That jury couldn’t come to a decision on the guilt or innocence of his co-accused, 37-year-old Kareem Eagan.

The incident occurred between on the morning of August 1st, 2016 at the KHMH. The complainant, Mario Zelaya, testified in the trial that he was walking from the emergency section of the hospital. He said he was going into the corridor of the main entrance when he was attacked by Burke and Eagan. He said Burke punched him in his face, and when he fell to the floor, both men began to kick him. Two eyewitnesses testified and corroborated Zelaya's testimony. The witnesses also said that while Zelaya was lying on the ground apparently unconscious, Burke jumped on his back and stomped him several times - all this in a hospital! 

Both men were unrepresented and through most of the trial, Burke remained silent and he only asked the witnesses a few questions. Eagan did not ask the witnesses any questions. After the Crown closed its case, and it was time for Burke and Eagan to defend themselves, they both chose to remain silent. 

The jury deliberated for over 4 hours and returned with a guilty verdict against Burke. But in the case of Eagan, they were unable to reach a verdict.

Justice Williams deferred sentencing for Burke until Thursday, February 13. As for Eagan, the judge said that the DPP will decide what to do in his case.

Aragon And The Audit

And, finally tonight, some politics.  On Saturday at the UDP National Party Council meeting, we got to ask former Minister of State Elodio Aragon about the Audi of the National Sports Council.  It finds huge cases of fraud, wastage, and mismanagement.  He said he asked for the audit when he took over:

Hon. Elodio Aragon - UDP OW East
"In terms of that having been my ministry, I want you all to know that when I took over was right after that. It is actually us who called in for an audit and in terms of looking at the way forward, we made changes when I was there to ensure that we move forward properly. At the end of the day, all of that will play out and I think it is only a matter of time that you all will know exactly what's the situation. Nothing is being hidden, it is out there."

Reporter
"When you took over the ministry, what urged you to call for that audit?"

Hon. Elodio Aragon
"It's every time new people take over, you must have an audit to account for what is there and the way forward and I think these are the right way and at the end of the day, like I said, at the end of the day, its out there already and the auditor general has made her report and the process is ongoing."

UDP’s First Leaders' Convention - A Ballot Only For Ultra-Loyalists

And, we also got to ask Party Chairman Alberto August about the 570 delegates who will vote for the new leader of the UDP. 

That’s going to happen at Sunday’s National Convention where only UDP’s ultra loyalists who have been elected as delegates will get to pick the new leader.  

August told us who comprises that select 570:

Alberto August - Chairman, UDP
"Our party is 570 delegates of our party comprise several blocks within our party. The biggest voting bloc comes out of the constituency. Every constituency has 16 delegates, so if you times the 16 by 31, that is going to give you 496 delegates. This is a unique situation where we have 3 constituencies that are where the area representatives have expressed an interest not run again, to express the desire not to contest election. So in those areas, we have 17 delegates. So we're talking about the Mesopotamia constituency, the Honourable Michael Finnegan, we're talking about the Port Loyola Constituency with the Honourable Boots Martinez and we're talking about Queen Square where the Rt. Honourable Prime Minister comes from. So that brings the biggest voting block of our delegates list to 499. We have 21 members on the central executive committee of our party, this that you saw here was the national party council. We're not counting the national party council because that is consumed within the constituency committees and then we have 6 senators, we have 41 elected municipal officers, you have 6 towns, so if you times 6 by 7 it will give you 42 but we only have 41 because you are aware in Dangriga, we have a PUP member there on the board. So that gives us 6 mayors and 35 councillors, so that makes up the voting bloc."

As we mentioned at the top of the news, in the UDP’s 47 year history, this is its very first convention to select a national leader.  The PUP had its first in 1996, its second in 2009, and its third in 2016.