The murder trial against William “Danny” Mason, Keiron Fernandez, Terrence Fernandez, Ernest Castillo and Ashton Vanegas came to a conclusion on Tuesday December 3 in Belmopan Supreme Court before Justice Antoinette Moore. The men had been charged with the murder of Pastor Lewellyn Lucas in July of 2016.
In a Tuesday morning session of the Belmopan Supreme Court, Justice Antoninette Moore deliberated on the five accused for the murder of Lucas, almost three and a half years after the charge had been laid. Given that the entire document on the case is over 100 pages long, Justice Moore made all attempts to offer a summary, laying out the case strand by strand to eventually roll out an entire woven canvas of evidence.
Firstly, the Prosecution had submitted electronic evidence from closed circuit television footage, from the Intelco Hill property of William Mason or “The Fifth Accused.” The video showed several of the accused in their various stages of conduct. Secondly, the Belize National Forensics had reviewed the blood stains from Pastor Lucas that had splattered on the clothing of several of the accused. But a strong piece of evidence conducted by an expert in the United States came from the molars of Lucas, which overwhelmingly confirmed that it was from his Deoxyribose nucleic Acid (DNA).
Even if the DNA evidence was excluded, the remaining pieces of evidence are still compelling said Justice Moore. Had the head of Pastor Lucas not been found, the case would have been considerably weekend concluded Justice Moore.
Then there was Dr. Mario Estradabran’s autopsy of Lucas, where the brain of the deceased showed some sign of activity before decapitation occurred.
As to Mason’s claim that he had been framed, Justice Moore found it inconceivable based on the electronic evidence. Justice Moore said that it was not possible for someone to plant the head of Pastor Lucas at the back of a truck, when the video shows that the deceased had been placed in there. For it was a case of joint enterprise, all acting in concert with each other in the killing of the deceased said Justice Moore.
The learned Justice also took the opportunity to thank the team from the Crown for their hard work that had brought the case to its status on Tuesday.
In July 15 of 2016 the head of Pastor Lewelly Lucas was found in a bucket at the back of William Mason’s pick-up truck whilst the four others now convicted men were socializing at Sancho’s bar in Belmopan. At the time Lucas had some kind of business relationship with Mason and was involved in some kind of activity with Mason.
Following Justice Moore’s Judgement she indicated that she will be making her sentence at a later date.
