Gomez v R

• Jurisdiction: Belize
• Court: Court of Appeal (Belize)
• Judge: Blair-Kerr, P.
• Judgment Date: 31 October 1979
• Neutral Citation: BZ 1979 CA 14
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal No. 9 of 1979
• Date: 31 October 1979

Court of Appeal

Blair-Kerr, P.; Inniss, J.A.; Georges, J.A.

Criminal Appeal No. 9 of 1979

Gomez

and

Regina

Criminal Law - Appeal against conviction for murder — Whether the evidence of doctor as an expert witness was adequately dealt with.

Evidence - Murder

Facts: Appellant inflicted fatal wound on deceased with machete — Appellant argued accidental injury — Medical doctor gave evidence that wound could not have been accidentally inflicted — Evidence inadmissible — Whether prejudice resulted to appellant

Held: No reason for upsetting verdict — Appeal dismissed.

Blair-Kerr, P.

1 On 26th June, 1979, the appellant Jorge Gomez (to whom, for convenience, we shall generally refer as “the accused.”) was convicted before the Supreme Court of Belize of the murder of William Perlata Canto and sentenced to death. Against his conviction and sentence he now appeals.

2 The evidence for the prosecution revealed that the deceased, the accused and one Avelino Coral, whose nickname was “Kaliman”, lived at Louisville in the Corozal District. They were cane cutters and worked on a farm belonging to one Venerando Pott.

3 In the evening of 15th April, 1978, they all went to Corozal Town in company with one another. There they drank a few beers. At about 11:30 p.m., they left on the return journey to Louisville, taking with them some drink, which the accused had bought. At Louisville, the three of them and another who appears to have been one Isaias, went to the accused's house. There they drank from a flask which they had bought from Corozal. The accused said that Coral and the deceased should go and look for another flask so that they could continue drinking. Because they did not do that, the accused got “mad”. Coral and the deceased then left and went to the house of Vicente Canelo, where the deceased lived. Canelo admitted them; and the two of them sat on the corner of the deceased's bed conversing, while Canelo lay down on his bed under his net.

4 Between fifteen minutes and half an hour later, the accused's voice was heard outside the house calling “Vicente”. Cando, was getting up to open the door, but only half his body was out from under the net when the deceased opened the door and the accused entered. He had a machete. The accused asked for Kaliman. Coral (i.e. Kaliman) asked the accused why he was looking for him. The deceased then said to the accused: “Be calm, let's not make a fight”. It was undisputed that, at that stage, the deceased had nothing in his hands: The evidence for the. Prosecution was that Kaliman had nothing in his hands either, and was standing by the deceased's bed; that the deceased was not trying to assault the accused and did not act as if he was going to fight and that he was trying to calm the accused. The accused then said: “Move, William, it's not with you”. To pacify him, the deceased said: “Be calm, we are friends, we should not fight”. The accused then said to deceased: “What do you think”, and at the same time, with his machete, he chopped he deceased on the left slide of his neck. The accused then went outside, turned around and said: “Kaliman, it has happened because of you but anywhere anytime I meet you we are going to make it up” The accused then left.

5 Bleeding profusely, the deceased went back to his bed. Then he sat on Canelo's bed, and in a few minutes he fell over.

6 That substantially, was the evidence given by Coral and Canelo.

7 The matter was reported to the police at Coroazal Town at 4:30 a.m. on 16th April, and the body of the deceased was taken to the Corozal Town mortuary. There, At about 11 a.m. that day, a post-mortem examination on the body of the deceased was performed by Dr. Gill. The doctor found a large incised wound 5” to 6” in length on the left side of the deceased's neck. It was 2” to 3” deep and had cut vital structures of the neck including the carotid artery, the jugular vein and the nerves. There was no other injury on the body. In the doctor's opinion, the neck wound had been caused by a large cutting instrument, such as a machete, used with some force; and death was caused by excessive loss of blood due to the wound on the neck.

8 At about 3:00 p.m. that day, Police Constable 107, Noah Cruz, saw the accused standing in front of the Altun Ha Bar. Before Cruz had time to say anything, the accused said: “Don't take me I will tell you how it went and why I did it. Because he provoked me, I chopped him”. P.C. Cruz said: “Never mind, it's alright. Let's take a walk to the station”. Cruz said in evidence that at the police station the accused appeared to be normal and kept saying the same thing as he had said previously.

9 Then Corporal Rene arrived. At that time, the accused was not under arrest. The corporal, asked the accused if he had chopped the deceased and the accused replied “‘yes”. The corporal, through P.C. Cruz, who spoke Spanish, then asked where the machete was, and the accused replied that it was in Santa Clara. At Rene's request the accused, accompanied Rene and Cruz to Santa Clara. There, without any searching, the accused took a machete from some bush where it had been hidden. It appeared to be clean and well sharpened. The accused told Cruz that he had cleaned the machete with a coconut palm branch.

10 Next morning Corporal Rene formally charged the accused with the murder of William Perlata Canto. After being cautioned, the accused gave a voluntary statement which was recorded in writing by P.C. Cruz. It vas recorded in Spanish and read over in Spanish to the accused who also read it aloud to P.C. Cruz. The accused then signed it. This statement, together with a translation prepared by P.C. Cruz, was admitted in evidence without objection.

11 In this statement, the accused said that on Saturday, 15th April, he, the deceased and Kaliman went to Corozal Town, that at the Altun Ha Restaurant, they each drank two beers and that after about two hours they went to Lucio Bar where they bought a quart of Caribbean rum. They had drunk nearly all of it when Veneraldo Pott offend them a lift back to Louisville in his truck and they accepted his offer. On their return to Louisville, they went to his (the accused's) house where they began to drink the rest of Caribbean rum. The accused's statement continues thus:

“we began to discuss me and Kaliman close to the promise that they made saying they will give me $2 each one so I told them that they would have to buy the other bottle because I done bought the first bottle it was when Kaliman told me of my ‘madda rass’ saying for me you are not a “madda rass for me”, it was when I respond to him, right now I will return and I went and brought my machete and come to the house where they were with me but they weren't there, so I went to the house of Kaliman and didn't find him and I was alone with the machete. Then I went to the house of Vicente where I had drink the Saturday before which is the 8.4.78 I reach the house of Vicente about 1:00 a.m. of the following day, I call to the man in the house saying, “Mr. Vicente”, and he answered me and came and open the door. I still had the machete in my hand sitting on the bed was Kaliman and William quickly William came and rush me trying to take away the machete from me and Kaliman was coming behind too and because I saw him coming too then I told him its not with you William but with Kaliman and since he didn't detain himself it was when I threw the chop at him and hit him on the left side of his neck and it began to bleed; then I told Kaliman you are the promoter of all this then I went to my house………….”

12 Describing his meeting with P.C. Cruz, the accused said in his statement: “……. about 3 p.m. I saw a police coming and he told me that he want to see me at the Police Station. I respond to him saying I will tell you how it went, I won't resist because I did it because he got in so I chop him on the neck ……………….”

13 Venerando Pott gave evidence. The learned judge's note of this witness' evidence reads in part as follows:

“On 15th April, I went to Corozal Town. Coming I met the accused and Kaliman and Perlata. The time was 11:15 – 11:30. I brought them back to Louisville in my truck. When I met them, they were conversing. They were normal. I could not make out if they were having a fuss. I did not hear any fuss. I was driving and they were to the back……. They had a few drinks but they were not too drunk ……… I was awakened between 2:00 and 2:15 a.m. Kaliman …… told me somebody had chopped Perlata ………. I reported the matter to the police. We went to look for the accused at his house. He was not there. I know ……… one Isaias...