“Robbery” Acquitted of Mark Gardiner’s Murder

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Feb. 18, 2010

Kareem Lopez, 23, a.k.a. “Robbery”, charged with the murder of Mark Gardiner, 26, who was shot and killed around 9:30 a.m. on October 5, 2006, was acquitted of the charge yesterday in the court of Justice Michelle Arana.

After the prosecution closed its case attorney Hubert Elrington, one of Lopez’ counsels, submitted that he did not have a case to answer.

Elrington’s submission was based on two limbs. He argued firstly that the court should withdraw the case from the jury because the evidence of identification was of a “tenuous character” and secondly that there was no evidence of who identified the body of Mark Gardiner because his brother, Richard Gardiner, did not come to court to testify.

The submission did not succeed on the first limb but it did on the second.

Justice Arana ruled that Lopez did not have a case to answer to because of the failure of the prosecution to establish the death of the deceased.

She said that proof of death must be coupled with proof of identification and the witness, Richard Gardiner, the deceased brother, should have been brought to court by force if necessary.

She directed the jury of 9 women and 3 men to deliver a formal verdict of not guilty.

Lopez’ other attorney was Legal Aid Center counsel Phillip Palacio.

There were two eye witnesses in the case, Gilbert Olivera and Nicannon Fermin, but Olivera could not testify because he had been shot and killed last year.

Fermin did testify and said that the deceased was riding a bicycle on East Canal Street from the direction of Orange Street when his assailant rode up behind him on a bicycle and fired a single shot which struck him in the back of his head.

Gardiner collapsed at the corner of East Canal Street and Water Lane. He was rushed to Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital where he died around 10:24 a.m.

Fermin said the shooter had a stocking on his head and his firearm appeared to be a .38 revolver. He identified Lopez as the shooter in an identification parade that was held 2 days after the incident.

But when he testified in court, however, he said he could not say whether the prisoner in the dock was the same person he identified in the identification parade.

The prosecution’s case was presented by Senior Crown Counsel Cecil Ramirez.

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