Tonight, a resident of the Stann Creek District is speaking out against the Belize Central Prison in what she is asserting is ill-treatment of her common-law husband, who is currently on remand in jail.
He's 27-year-old Phillip Bowen, one of 2 people who police charged back in June for the double murder of 55-year-old Quentin Espinosa, a Belizean divemaster, and the 70-year-old American, Roman Burley.
On May 22nd the bodies of both Espinosa and Burley were found on a property on Hopkins Road. Both had been shot to the head.
Bowen and Teodoro Garcia were charged with 2 counts of murder.
That's around the time when the worries of Bowen's common-law wife, Niecy Welch, began. She claims that since his arrival a prison, Bowen has been placed in a sort of strict, draconian style lockdown at the administrative segregation section of the facility. She is concerned for his health as an asthma patient, and today, she granted us an interview to complain that her written concerns to the Prison's administration continue to be ignored. Here's what she told us via teleconference this afternoon:
Voice of: Niecy Welch - Common-law Wife of Phillip Bowen
"He went to jail, the Belize Central Prison, on the 3rd of June 2020, this year. But, ever since he reached there because he went up on a murder charge. He was at Tango 11 for a couple of weeks, when they decided to move him to [administrative segregation], which most of them call the hole. People say they don't have any light or any water. They don't even get any visits or calls, or food drop-offs from none of their family members outside. So, my concern is why Mr. Murrillo has this type of corporal punishment inside his prison facility. I read online that those kinds of punishments should be completely prohibited in a prison facility. I decided to come to the media because I haven't heard from him since the 31st of July when they took him there on the 31st of July at night. When I called, some inmates told me that they already removed him from the cell, sometime throughout Thursday night, which was the 30th of July, and took him to the hole. So, I really concerned because every day, I get up, I get a call from the prison telling me that my common-law needs his asthma pump, because I know he suffers from asthma. And, they only have one asthma machine that they put him on every day so that he can breathe well. Even though I call and text Mr. Murrillo, he still answered any of my calls, any of the messages that I have left on his phone. So, I just want to know how I could get help with this, well at least so that he could get back his calls, his visits, to at least make his family members know that he is okay."
"To put somebody in that type of place, that cell that you have access to absolutely nothing, not even an animal would like to get locked up somewhere where it's dark, or somewhere when daylight comes, it very hot."
Reporter
"If they try to justify the lockdown of your common-law saying that he is some sort of dangerous individual who is threatening law and order at the prison, what would you say in response?"
Voice of: Niecy Welch
"I think that my common-law would never do anything there to say they can lock him down for that amount of time. Even when he calls me, he abides by their rules, how much time they want him on the phone, how much minutes and so."
We have reached out to the management of the prison for comment in response to Welch's complaint, but they declined.
News archives indicate that in February 2016, Bowen was convicted of 1 count of robbery and aggravated assault with a firearm against 2 police officers.
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