In August of 2018, it made headlines when Richard Foster, the 74-year-old British filmmaker who made Belize his home, was found dead in the Rivera area of Belmopan. Several days later, police arrested and charged Andrew Clark - who was thirty-one years old at the time, Derwin Lincoln Jones - who was twenty-six years old at that time, and Edmond Anthony Pascasio, who was the youngest at 22 years at the time. All three men were jointly charged for murder.
We are reliably informed that the main evidence came from the prosecution's lead witness, who gave testimony and placed himself at the crime scene with the two accused. He told the court that he simply accompanied Pascasio and Clarke when they went to burglarize the victim's home. He also told the court that he was in the Foster's Toyota truck with the accused men when they went to the riverside in Belmopan.
This witness then said that he observed when Pascasio walked Richard Foster down to the riverside. He also claimed to have seen when Pascasio stabbed Foster and left him at the bottom of the river.
The presiding judge deemed this witness as an accomplice to these crimes, and since he was sitting in a trial without a jury, he warned himself of the dangers of accepting testimony from an accomplice who may be attempting to throw another accused person under the bus to save himself.
In his ruling, the judge did not find this main prosecution witness to be credible. He also disregarded the alibi defense from the two accused persons, which he also did not find credible.
But, since the prosecution was already fighting an uphill battle without any other independent pieces of evidence, such as forensics or a murder weapon, the judge ruled that they did not adequately prove that the defendants were guilty of this crime. The judge then acquitted Pascasio and Clarke of the murder charge, and they were allowed to leave the court as free men. Their third co-accused, Derwin Jones, did not stand trial for murder because the prosecution withdrew their case against him. They had obtained information that while Jones participated in the burglary of the victim's home, he did not accompany the others to the Belmopan Riverside for the actual killing.
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