Forgiving mother drops case against Guatemalan minor who knocked down and killed her daughter

By BBN Staff: After much painful deliberation, the mother of eight-year-old Belmopan traffic accident victim Gabriela Corales, Ana Ramirez, has chosen to discontinue the case against a minor, now 16, who knocked down and killed her daughter as she bicycled across a pedestrian ramp on the East Ring Road near Our Lady of Guadalupe Roman Catholic School in Belmopan last June.

The case was set before Magistrate Johnelle Villanueva for hearing on Thursday, but Ramirez, after speaking with the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, asked that they withdraw the charges, and a letter to that effect was presented to the Magistrate.

Little Gabriela was on her way home when the minor, a Guatemalan, driving an SUV, knocked her off her bicycle as she rode across the pedestrian ramp.

Earlier this year it was reported that the case file had gone missing, and the matter was sensitive to many Belizeans and especially Belmopan residents.

But Ramirez, holding her new-born child, told PLUS TV Thursday evening that the decision was hers and hers alone and that she was not paid off or coerced.

“I had been thinking over this since the time it happened – thinking, praying, asking God for guidance and also my angel (Gabriella). I decided that I did not want to proceed with this situation – it’s somehow painful. Going back to this is just like coming back to that moment and going back over it again,” she said, adding that there was no discussion at any time with the family of the accused minor over compensation.

After the case was closed, the minor and his mother begged for her forgiveness outside court, which she granted by explaining that he must take this as a lesson and that not everyone will be as forgiving as she was.

Some, according to Ramirez, claim that she doesn’t “deserve to be a mother;” her new-born boy, whose due date was June 18, the day of the accident and completely unexpected, is proof against that.

The minor, who faced charges of manslaughter by negligence, causing death by careless conduct, and driving without a valid license, was represented by attorneys Hurl Hamilton and Hector Guerra.

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