Five men entered the courtroom under heavy police guard today, but only one walked out a free man after Justice Candace Nanton delivered her verdict in a deadly October 2021 attack at sea. Gabriel Villafranco and Carlos Salazar were convicted of murdering Jerry Espat and attempting to murder his younger brother, Kirian, while Pedro Tun and Delsin Paguada were found guilty of attempting to murder brothers Ricardo and Luis Santoya. Sergio Tun was acquitted of both attempted-murder charges after the judge ruled that a single eyewitness identification was not enough to place him aboard the red boat. Armed officers surrounded the courthouse as Justice Nanton summarized her decision, which runs more than seventy pages. The Crown’s case dates back to a fishing trip near the Congrejo area, about twenty minutes from San Pedro, where prosecutors say a red-and-white boat carrying Paguada and the Tun brothers approached four Santoya brothers before gunfire erupted and two of the fishermen were chased toward San Pedro under continued fire. Two brothers left in the water later encountered a second boat, whose occupants allegedly opened fire, killing Jerry Espat. Kirian Espat survived by diving beneath the surface and fighting off attempts to drag him aboard, later telling police that his attackers struck him with a machete. Before his death six months later, Kirian gave investigators a statement identifying Gabriel Villafranco and Carlos Salazar, which the court admitted into evidence. All five defendants presented alibi witnesses and maintained that they were elsewhere during the attack, but Justice Candace Nanton rejected the defenses of Villafranco, Salazar, Pedro Tun and Delsin Paguada, relying on eyewitness testimony and Kirian’s statement to convict them. She acquitted Sergio Tun on both charges after finding the identification evidence against him insufficient. The four convicted men have been remanded to the Belize Central Prison pending mitigation and sentencing at a later date.
Attention readers: This online newscast is a direct transcript of our evening television broadcast. When speakers use Kriol, we have carefully rendered their words using a standard spelling system.
Watch the full newscast here:
