William v R

• Jurisdiction: Belize
• Court: Court of Appeal (Belize)
• Judge: Blair-Kerr, P.
• Judgment Date: 31 October 1979
• Neutral Citation: BZ 1979 CA 16
• Docket Number: Criminal Appeal No. 11 of 1979
• Date: 31 October 1979

Court of Appeal

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

Criminal Appeal No. 11 of 1979

William

and

Regina

Criminal Law - Appeal against housebreaking

Criminal Law - Appeal against conviction of aggravated theft — No evidence on which conviction could be dismissed.

Facts: Articles found in appellant's possession — No reasonable explanation offered — No evidence of inadequacy in summing up by trial judge

Held: No misdirection — Appears against convictions and sentences dismissed.

Blair-Kerr, P.

1 The appellant was charged on an indictment containing three counts-housebreaking contrary to section 199 of the Criminal Code, aggravated theft contrary to section 155(b) of the Criminal Code of articles to the value of $144.25 from the house he had allegedly broken into and in the alternative, a count of receiving contrary to section 177(1) of the Criminal Code of the articles alleged to have been stolen. He was convicted on the first two counts and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment with hard labour on the first and 2 years imprisonment with hard labour on the second, the sentences to run concurrently.

2 The case for the prosecution was based on recent possession. Mr. Pineda whose house was broken into testified that he was returning home from work one day when he saw a man underneath an old broken bridge where there was a diversion. It struck him that the man had a gun and headlight which resembled his gun and headlight. He turned to approach the man and observed that a wristwatch the man was wearing and a plastic pocket for a headlight battery, which the man had, also resembled his property. Mr. Pineda asked the man where he got the gun from. The man made no reply and ran off. Mr. Pineda gave chase and caught up with the man who turned out to be the appellant. Mr. Pineda took the gun and the watch from him and asked him for the headlight. He said he had none. While this was taking place, a Volkswagon bus came up and the appellant ran away. Mr. Pineda and the occupants of the Volkswagon — one of them Mr. Cowo — gave chase and again caught the appellant. They put the appellant in the Volkswagon and took him to the police station pausing at Mr. Pineda's house on the way. There Mr. Pineda discovered that his house, which he had properly secured that morning before going into work, had been broken into and his gun, headlight, wristwatch and plastic headlight pocket had been taken away. Searching in the area...