Mark August and Avery Baine sentenced to 7 years each for 2 counts of use of deadly means of harm upon the Budd brothers of Belize City

Published by BBNTEAM at November 10, 2023

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Posted: Friday, November 10, 2023. 9:52 pm CST.

By Aaron Humes: Two Belize City men originally charged with attempting to murder Brenton and Calbert Budd on February 23, 2019 were convicted of use of deadly means of harm after pleading guilty.

26-year-old Avery Baine and 23-year-old Mark August engaged in a shootout with the Budds after first threatening them.

Defense counsel Oscar Selgado asked the court to impose a non-custodial sentence since he feels they are capable of being reformed or rehabilitated.

In response, Prosecutor Crown Counsel Robert Lord submitted that the two men had been terrorizing the brothers for a while and that the attempt on their lives could have ended in death if one of the brothers didn’t have their licensed firearm to protect them when they came under fire.

He added that a non-custodial sentence or any prison term below seven years imprisonment would be, a miscarriage of justice and a slap on the wrist to the accused men considering their initial, more serious charges.

In mitigation family members of both men cited their upbringing with one mentioning that August is the father of a five-year-old girl he rarely gets to see while in prison.

Unfortunately that will continue as Justice O’Neil Sandcroft sentenced the two men to 7 years on each count and ordered that their sentence run concurrently to each other. The two convicted were also ordered to undergo anger management sessions.

In imposing the sentence, Justice Sandcroft said, “I must strike a balance [between] your lives and the interest of the community.”

His starting point for sentencing was 10 years but he deducted a year each for their early guilty plea, and two years each for their capability to be rehabilitated.

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