Murder case unravels after the crown’s key witness could not identify the accused in court

Published by BBNTEAM at March 23, 2022

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Posted: Wednesday, March 23, 2022. 10:48 pm CST.

By BBN Staff: Blake Lewis, charged with the 2017 murder of 62-year-old Mercel Samuels, left the Belmopan Supreme Court a free man today after he was acquitted of the charge.

The prosecution’s key witness was the victim’s common-law wife, who gave a tear-filled, two-hour virtual testimony in court. She told prosecutors everything that she recalled about the day she and Samuels were on the Butcher Burns Road, Mile 19 on the George Price Highway, headed to their farm when two people rode up to them on a bicycle and one of them shot Samuels to the head.

The witness noted that she knew Blake Lewis prior because several months earlier, Lewis was arrested for stealing a horse from their farm. She went into detail about that case to establish how she knew him but when prosecutor Cecil Ramirez asked the victim to identify Lewis in court, she paused for more than a minute and then said she could not identify him.

With that, Lewis’s defense attorney entered a no-case submission, and the prosecution could not respond.

Reports reaching our newsroom were that the victim was fearful to testify, and had originally refused to do so for fear of her life.

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