Convict escapes police and tries to elude capture by disguising himself as a prison guard

By Breaking Belize News Staff: A Caye Caulker resident who was to serve six months in prison for a fisheries offense is serving additional time after escaping police custody.

Twenty-eight-year-old Amner Vargas was being escorted to the Belize Central Prison on Tuesday, February 28, when he managed to undo his handcuffs and leapt from a moving police transport that slowed down at a speed bump. Vargas managed to escape the officers at the scene and was found later in the Tropical Park area wearing the outfit of a prison officer that he had stolen off the clothesline of a resident in the vicinity.

He was arraigned in the Belize City Magistrate’s Court on Thursday where he appeared unrepresented before Magistrate Baja Shoman. Vargas pleaded guilty to a single count of escaping lawful custody, explaining to the court that he got afraid when he was told that he would be placed into solitary confinement.

He apologized and said that police beat him when he was recaptured and that he had sustained an injury to his feet while escaping, making him unable to stand during his arraignment.

Magistrate Shoman sentenced him to 11 months for the escape, deducting two months for his early guilty plea. The Magistrate told him that an aggravating factor against him was that he has a previous conviction for escape.

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