Don’t let me die in vain

By Charles Leslie Jr and Maureen Leslie Stain

It was July 31, 2002. I was 19.  I remember that day well.  It was the day that I held my first  baby boy, Leon Jr, in my arms. It was euphoric. On August 4, 2004 we experienced another miracle, we had Nathan. My wife, Michelle, and I brought two wonderful life into the world.  I was full of life; full of ambitions.  I had a family to take care of.  Wow!

On August 28, 2006 my wife and I were traveling as passengers with Pediatrician Miguel Rosado, when an oil tanker truck clipped the vehicle we were traveling in.  Dr. Rosado lost control and the vehicle flipped. I suffered minor injuries. My wife and Dr. Rosado lost their lives.  It was an ineffable experience. I always wondered how people get over losing a loved one.  I found out, you never really do. The heart never truly heals.  Life is a strange thing you know.  Filled with so much joy and so much pain.

Life eventually came back to some form of normalcy.  I had to focus on making a living, after all, I had two children to look after. Life however, had other plans for me.  I was a mechanic by trade. And living in Belize City, whether you like it or not, you come in contact with unsavory characters, people who will bring you harm, if you deserve it or not. Just look at all the witnesses to crime, whom became victims themselves because of that fact.

As I said, life was not finished with me yet, well, it was, as a matter of fact. Sometime late Saturday night on April 11th, or early Sunday morning on April 12th, I, Leon Leslie Sr., a mechanic by trade, a father of two children, a husband to a dead wife, was brutally killed in my home. I am not worried about myself at this point.  I am gone from the physical plane of existence and I am with my beautiful wife, however, I am worried about my two children, about my mother, about my family and friends, and especially about the fact that they may never find closure, due to an almost defunct justice system in the country I called home for 31 years.

I, like many innocent Belizeans, have had his life snuffed out for some reason or the other. I can tell you my tale, for dead men do speak, however, with the lack of a proper Crime Scene Investigation Unit, which was promised by the Prime Minister of Belize on September 22, 2011; without this very necessary institution, it will be difficult to tell my tale, and it will be difficult for all the other Belizeans whom have been murdered, to tell their tales, to find justice and their families and friends to find closure, and for the judicial system to regain the public’s trust and confidence.

Please, I beg of you, the people of Belize, demand that the promise of a proper Crime Scene Investigation unit is fulfilled, demand that we fix the problems that has us with a 2% conviction rate, demand that justice is served for myself, that I get to tell my story, and that my family and friends can find closure, and that my children can grow up knowing that justice was served, so they, like many other children, do not grow up bitter with life, at Belize, at themselves. As a nation we cannot afford injustices anymore, where life is being lost at an alarming rate because of social decay and an insufficient judicial system, it is taking too much of a toll on our country and our people.

Yours in peace,

Leon Leslie Sr.

Written on my behalf by my cousin Charles X Leslie and my mother Maureen Leslie Staine

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