<div id="attachment_101552" class="wp-caption alignleft" style="width:310px;"><a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0002.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-101552" title="Renan Briceno" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0002-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225"/></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Renan Briceno</p></div>
<p><strong style="font-size:13px;">Just after two this afternoon in a crowded courtroom, Justice Troadio Gonzalez handed down a decision in the murder trial of Renan Briceño Junior. Thirty-two year old Briceño had been behind prison bars since the shooting death of Dale Tillett which occurred on December thirty-first 2011 at the Palm Island Night Club in Belize City. Tillett succumbed to the injuries within days and Briceño was charged with his murder. In the course of the trial without jury, a total of sixteen witnesses were called to testify, but the prosecution was unable to prove the murder charge against Briceño and he was freed. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was in the court and captured the reaction of the two families when Justice Gonzalez handed down his decision.</strong></p>
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<p><strong>Isani Cayetano, Reporting</strong></p>
<p>The anguish of a grief-stricken mother whose son’s accused killer has been set free, following a decision handed down by Justice Troadio Gonzalez this afternoon, is squared by the exultation of the suspect’s family. <a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0001.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-101554" title="Briceno Verdict0001" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0001-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>Inside the chamber immediately after a verdict of not guilty was read, relatives of Renan Briceno Jr., including his father and two uncles, breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the ordeal which has seen their loved one on remand for murder since January sixth, 2012 came to an end. Descending the steps of the Supreme Court building moments later was the devastated mother of Dale Tillett. The nineteen-year-old was gunned down in the parking lot of Palm Island Night Club on December thirty first, 2011 during a melee between feuding parties. In the aftermath of the deadly shooting, Briceno was charged for the homicide and held in pretrial detention until a week ago when the trial without a jury commenced. Prosecutors Shanice Lovell and Porsha Staine made a case implicating Briceno in the fatal attack but were unsuccessful in satisfying the last of four critical factors in the argument; that the former marketing representative was indeed the gunman. <a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-101553" title="Briceno Verdict" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>While they both relied on a witness statement tendered by Albert ‘Long John’ Fuentes, one of four men killed last year at a residence on George Street, burden of proof was not met. From the dock, Briceno told the court that he had surrendered his licensed nine millimeter handgun to a friend prior to entering the premises. Upon hearing gunshots, Briceno observed Tulio Caceres running and he decided to take cover behind a vehicle. Briceno then retrieved the weapon from Caceres before it was confiscated by police. That sequence of events cannot be refuted since Caceres was executed in similar fashion a month ago. Shortly after two o’clock, the session was called to order and, before a packed courtroom, a decision to release Briceno was delivered.</p>
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<p><strong style="font-size:13px;">Just after two this afternoon in a crowded courtroom, Justice Troadio Gonzalez handed down a decision in the murder trial of Renan Briceño Junior. Thirty-two year old Briceño had been behind prison bars since the shooting death of Dale Tillett which occurred on December thirty-first 2011 at the Palm Island Night Club in Belize City. Tillett succumbed to the injuries within days and Briceño was charged with his murder. In the course of the trial without jury, a total of sixteen witnesses were called to testify, but the prosecution was unable to prove the murder charge against Briceño and he was freed. News Five’s Isani Cayetano was in the court and captured the reaction of the two families when Justice Gonzalez handed down his decision.</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Isani Cayetano, Reporting</strong></p>
<p>The anguish of a grief-stricken mother whose son’s accused killer has been set free, following a decision handed down by Justice Troadio Gonzalez this afternoon, is squared by the exultation of the suspect’s family. <a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0001.jpg"><img class="alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-101554" title="Briceno Verdict0001" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict0001-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>Inside the chamber immediately after a verdict of not guilty was read, relatives of Renan Briceno Jr., including his father and two uncles, breathed a collective sigh of relief, as the ordeal which has seen their loved one on remand for murder since January sixth, 2012 came to an end. Descending the steps of the Supreme Court building moments later was the devastated mother of Dale Tillett. The nineteen-year-old was gunned down in the parking lot of Palm Island Night Club on December thirty first, 2011 during a melee between feuding parties. In the aftermath of the deadly shooting, Briceno was charged for the homicide and held in pretrial detention until a week ago when the trial without a jury commenced. Prosecutors Shanice Lovell and Porsha Staine made a case implicating Briceno in the fatal attack but were unsuccessful in satisfying the last of four critical factors in the argument; that the former marketing representative was indeed the gunman. <a rel="nofollow" class="highslide" target="_blank" href="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-101553" title="Briceno Verdict" src="http://edition.channel5belize.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Briceno-Verdict-150x150.jpg" alt="" width="150" height="150"/></a>While they both relied on a witness statement tendered by Albert ‘Long John’ Fuentes, one of four men killed last year at a residence on George Street, burden of proof was not met. From the dock, Briceno told the court that he had surrendered his licensed nine millimeter handgun to a friend prior to entering the premises. Upon hearing gunshots, Briceno observed Tulio Caceres running and he decided to take cover behind a vehicle. Briceno then retrieved the weapon from Caceres before it was confiscated by police. That sequence of events cannot be refuted since Caceres was executed in similar fashion a month ago. Shortly after two o’clock, the session was called to order and, before a packed courtroom, a decision to release Briceno was delivered.</p>
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