Will the real “Danny” Mason please stand up?

By Aaron Humes: Who is the real William “Danny” Mason – a cold, calculated killer grandstanding for mercy, or a kind-hearted, generous businessman in over his head?

Aided by the convict himself, a different picture of the man emerged during the second day of mitigation and sentencing in the Supreme Court.

Two character witnesses testified to his general honesty in business; it would have been more, the convict said, if the many he helped were now not so afraid of being victimized.

Mason, 50, spoke of victim Llewellyn Lucas as a friend he tried to help and who in turn helped him. He apologized, while avoiding self-incrimination, for Lucas’s death even as he curiously described him as having fundamental self-belief: “It was his way or no way at all,” he said from the prisoner’s dock.

Mason said he came to Belize to invest and help and with his many connections in high places he managed to do some good. That he later accused one of them, John Saldivar, of betraying him, was not mentioned.

Mason also chided prison authorities for denying him basic access to prison programs and other amenities and said two officers were standing over him after dialing a local television station for an impromptu interview. He said he had spent the majority of his time behind bars in solitary confinement.

Attorney Dexter Todd made much of his client’s clean record and urged the court to hand down a fixed-term sentence in order to allow him to give back to society in his natural life.

The defense’s case is now complete; DPP Cheryl Lynn Vidal will begin her response shortly and continue this afternoon.

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