High Court finds Earl Baptist guilty of the 2022 shooting murder of 32-year-old Leslie Norman Gillett

By Aaron Humes: Guilty of murder was the verdict against accused shooter Earl Baptist, a resident of Police Street, Belize City, who was charged for the January 21, 2022 execution style murder of Burrell Boom Businessman, Leslie Norman Gillett, 32, inside Matilda’s Shop, by High Court Justice Derick Sylvester.

While there were no direct witnesses the entire incident was captured on surveillance cameras, which established the identity of one of the two shooters.

Two men were seen walking to Matilda’s Shop, one pretending to be buying, and when he was handed a product he requested from inside the shop, both gunmen pulled out separate firearms and open fired through the counter window and fatally injured Gillett who was shot multiple times to the body.

Justice Sylvester’s judgment relied on the testimony of Sergeant Rollington Fuller, who on viewing the footage recognized Baptist due to his deadlocked hairstyle even though his face was masked and covered. The other man was “redskin” with a dark baseball cap dipped low covering his eyes.

The judge said he was confident in Sergeant Fuller’s testimony to be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that Baptist was one of the shooters while the other was not identified.

For his part Baptist claimed he was elsewhere in a dock statement which is unsworn testimony, not subject to cross-examination.

The five elements of murder was proven in the view of the Court beyond a reasonable doubt: Gillett is dead; he died from harm; it was the accused Baptist who caused the harm; he did so with specific intent to kill and when he inflicted the harm, he had no justified reason by law to harm Gillett.

Justice Sylvester also noted that the Crown proved to him that the evidence had not been tampered with as claimed by the defence.

Justice Sylvester has set July 15, 2024 for mitigation pleas plea to be heard on behalf of Baptist before sentencing.

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