As many as 28 prisoners at the Belize Central Prison made up a group of escapees who managed to break out from the Hattieville Prison on Monday, October 12, 2020. Since then, several groups of law enforcement personnel worked on rounding up the escapees and at least one was killed in the process. That rounding up processed seems to have waned, however, as it has been quite some time since another prisoner was recaptured.
By the prison’s count, some 25 prisoners have been recaptured and taken back into custody at the prison. A number of the men who have been recaptured to date have already been arraigned for escaping from prison. A majority of them have pleaded guilty to the charge and been sentenced to a year, a sentence set to run concurrently with their existing sentences. On the other hand, a smaller number of the escapees pleaded not guilty stating that they were forced to escape by the masterminds of the jailbreak.
There are still three men on the run and as time goes on, it might mean bad news for the Belize Central Prison. According to Virgilio Murillo, Chief Executive Officer at the Kolbe Foundation, those men are Erwin Lanza, Michael Faux, and Jaroud Lamb. Of those three, two, both Lamb and Faux, are convicted murderers. Lamb was convicted of a 2013 murder carried out during a robbery at Belmopan’s La Choza Bar while Faux, who was sentenced to life, is accused of the murder of Sidley Bradley who was shot. Lanza on the other hand was arrested for possession of a marijuana plant and firearm. CEO Murillo says that the police remain vigilant in recapturing these men but adds that they may be getting assistance from either family members or friends.
