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Jervis Diamond Valencia, the 38-year-old reputed street figure from Mayflower Street in Belize City, has been acquitted of murder for the second time. Justice Colin Williams found him not guilty today of the March 2015 gun murder of 36-year-old Moses Gonguez.

On the night of municipal elections, March 4th, 2015, Gonguez was shot and killed on Mayflower Street, in the infamous neighbourhood known as Ghost Town. At around 9:30 p.m., while the votes were still being tallied, cops had to respond and stand guard over the embattled neighbourhood. Gonguez was gunned down, and the cops say that Valencia, his assailant, was trying to flee the scene. So, they set chase, and according to the responding police officers, he pulled out a gun and took aim at them when they ordered him to stop. So, they fired in self-defence and shot him in the neck and chest.

He survived those injuries, and since March 15, 2015, he was placed on remand at the Belize Central Prison, until he received one of those rare bails for the capital offense in August 2018.

The biggest challenge in the prosecution of the murder charge against Valencia was the chain of custody evidence for the murder weapon, which the cops said that Valencia was armed with. Also, the prosecution's main witness recanted his written statement to police, which had identified Valencia as the gunman who killed Gonguez.

Senior Crown Counsel Shanice Lovell called a series of witnesses in an attempt to prove her case against Valencia. But, the main witness became hostile on the witness stand and refused to cooperate. Back in 2015, when the cops were investigating the crime, he gave them a written statement that prior to Gonguez's fatal shooting, he saw Valencia in a yard with a gun. He also identified Valencia as the shooter.

But, when he took the stand, he recanted and told the court that he saw nothing. He said that he was inside a room at the time of the shooting.

The cops say that Valencia was caught with a gun that matched the expended shells found at the crime scene of Gonguez's murder. But, when that evidence was tested in the trial without a jury, the judge found discrepancies with the chain of custody surrounding these pieces of evidence.

After consideration of a no-case submission that Valencia's attorney, Ellis Arnold, made on his behalf, Justice Colin Williams acquitted him and set him free.