Tonight, the Manslaughter trial against former Corporal Kareem Martinez for the killing of Laddie Gillett has finally concluded.
And today the scene moved to Belize City's Supreme Court saw oral submissions by Attorney for the crown, Javier Chan while the defence declined to do the same. Instead, attorney Oscar Selgado said that he was content to rely on the written submission that he's already supplied to the court.
But a whole lot more than that happened, and Cherisse Halsall spent the day in Justice Antoinette Moore's court and here's her report just as the proceedings concluded:
STANDUP
We're back after the courts, deliberations, and the court recalled gun expert Sherilee Lino.
The firearms expert said that she could only speak to bullet trajectory in a limited capacity. The question that was posed to Miss Lino was is it possible for someone to fire into. The air and that for that bullet to then hit someone who is standing up. Her answer, the bullett can travel several feet up but will be affected by gravity, after a certain point gravity will cause the bullet to fall back to the earth, all depending on the position if the person carrying the firearm and environmental factors like the wind.
And then we came to closing arguments, there were four elements that the crown put forward to prove manslaughter, first that the death was caused by harm, that the infliction of that harm was unlawful and that it was Kareem Martinez, the accused who himself by his own admission said in his station interview that he fired the shot, he didn't say that he heard any other shots.
And we do know that there was one expended shell, the firearm witness say it came from Kareem Martinez's Gun. The defence said Laddie was shot by Clyde Augustine again but no evidence speaks to that.
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