R v Che

• Jurisdiction: Belize
• Court: Supreme Court (Belize)
• Judge: Staine, J.
• Judgment Date: 06 November 1978
• Docket Number: Action No.
• Date: 06 November 1978

Supreme Court

Staine, J.

Action No.

R.

and

Che

Practice and procedure - Charge of murder — Whether evidence was such that a conviction could be decided on.

SUBMISSION ON WITHDRAWING CASE FROM JURY

1 In this case the accused in charged with the murder of Martin Chicken on the 11th day of February, 1978. At the conclusion of the case for the prosecution Counsel for the Defence, Mr. D.O. Barrow, moved the Court to direct and the jury to return a verdict of not guilty on the ground that there is no satisfactory evidence upon which to convict.

2 This submission follows the line to be adopted by a trial judge, suggested in R. v. Young (1964) C.A.R. 292 at p. 296. The dictum in Young's case is contained in the last few sentences, and was not a ratio decidendi as the judgment was merely obiter dicta. Nevertheless, being dicta of the Court of Criminal Appeal, respect must be paid to it, having regard to its source. However, this being a trial upon a capital charge and before a jury of twelve, whose verdict upon the charge is required to be unanimous, I have considered it prudent to reserve my decision and reduce it to writing, giving the reasons I consider applicable.

3 At the close of the prosecution's case, three witnesses had given evidence for the prosecution. One Dr. Castillo Von Heinkel, can, for the purposes of this decision, be regarded as not having given evidence which is the subject of any controversy, particularly since he was not cross-examined by the defence.

4 P.C. Zetina told the court that on the evening of 11th February, 1978, the accused accompanied by one Frederick Swan had come to the Police Station at Columbia, and Swan had shouted that the accused had a report to make, whereupon the accused told P.C. Zetina that he killed his brother-in-law. P.C. Zetina said he asked the accused how he knew that his brother-in-law was dead; the accused said he had chopped his brother-in-law, Martin Chicken on the throat. He also noticed the accused was bleeding and had swellings.

5 According to P.C. Zetina, the accused had also told him that he, the accused, had been husking corn when Martin Chicken came and hit the accused on the head with a stick. The accused, thereupon, told his father to be careful of that man, and said he left running from Columbia through a short cut, carrying his machete, with the intention of going to report the matter to the police at Columbia. The deceased, he said, caught up with him in the short cut, began hitting him with the stick again, and the accused, unable to take any more, chopped the deceased with the machete, thus causing his death.

6 Thereafter, P.C. Zetina said he left together with Swan and the accused and went to Crique Trozo where the accused lived, and in a road referred to as a “picado” road, P.C. Zetina came upon the dead body of Martin Chicken, lying in the road, face upwards, with wounds on his neck, face and head.

7 P.C. Zetina then said he asked the accused where was the machete and he said the accused took him to where the machete was, and it was stuck in what he called the “taceda” of a thatched house. P.C. Zetina said he took possession of the machete and, taking the accused and his father with him, he left for Punta Gorda.

8 Arriving in Punta Gorda, he reported the matter to A.S.P. Lucas, who, along with the sergeant and a police constable, left with P.C. Zetina and Pedro Che for Crique Trozo. The accused was not taken a long.

9 They arrived in Crique Trozo and removed the body on a stretcher and took it to Pedro Che's house. Then Pedro Che handed...