The sentencing hearing for Danny Mason and his employees, Ashton Vanegas, Keiron Fernandez, Terrence Fernandez, and Ernest Castillo commenced today in the Supreme Court in Belize City before Justice Antonette Moore.
Each of the convicted men made a plea for leniency from the court, begging the judge for mercy, pointing also to their good conduct while in prison, and to their families who were without a breadwinner.
Notably, Keiron Fernandez and Terrence Fernandez - who are cousins - both called their grandmother, as a character witness. She broke down into tears on the stand, saying how she cried whenever she saw her grandson's Keiron's four kids - asking for their father.
And there were also tears from Pastor Lu's family members who sat in court. Kieron Fernandez asked for permission o speak to them directly and said he knew them as good people and felt the pain of their loss. He expressed sympathy, but steadfastly maintained his innocence.
And, in a tearful phone call via Skype, Terrence Fernandez's own mother said what affected her son most was quote, "terrible parents" who are "very selfish."
Mitigation pleas were heard for all the accused except Danny Mason. His character witnesses are in Canada and could not be reached via skype, so his hearing is scheduled for tomorrow morning.
After the day's hearings finished at close to 5:00, we spoke to Norman Rodriguez, the attorney for Ashton Vanegas who outlined the thirst of the mitigation pleas:
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney for Ashton Vanegas
"Murder carries a very high sentence and the matter in which the pastor lost his life would require a very high sentence. As attorneys for the convicts we have to try and see if we can get the court to be lenient, that is why we ask for those lower end sentences. If you look at it as how the court sees them at this point you are looking at 5 convicted men and if you are looking at these convicted men then the court in imposing sentence would go by what is before it, but after it has heard the mitigation witnesses that kind of might soften up what the court sees and prompts the court to give a lower sentence."
Jules Vasquez, reporter
"I notice that none of them, of the 4 so far have said that well I'm sorry for what I did. They said they are sorry about what happened and they are sorry for the family's loss. Is that a deliberate strategy if the case goes to appeal, that type of thing?"
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney for Ashton Vanegas
"I believe that is the reason for saying that. You don't want to admit guilt especially if you believe that you are not guilty, but you have to be careful what you say before the court, because you are being sentenced and you have been convicted of the crime, so you have to be very careful with how you speak to the court so that you don't prejudice either the sentencing or the appeal, if it goes to that."
Jules Vasquez
"I know you cannot speak for the judge, but we know that precedence suggest that if you are convicted of murder you get 25 years to life."
Norman Rodriguez, Attorney for Ashton Vanegas
"I am looking at a minimum of 25 because that is what the authorities show the court has gone as the lowest sentence for a crime like this. That is after the judge decides or does her mental deliberation and decides what it is that she will impose for all or individually because remember that the sentencing can go, all of them get the same sentence or a different convict gets a different sentence based on the evidence that was presented in court."
The highly anticipated mitigation plea from Danny Mason is scheduled for tomorrow morning. We'll have coverage of that in tomorrow's news.
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