Emerson Elijio Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter in Vendor’s Killing

Twenty-four-year-old Emerson Elijio has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the shooting death of vegetable vendor Jose Antonio Lopez. He remains in custody and is scheduled to be sentenced on December 1. Elijio changed his plea today before Justice Nigel Pilgrim in the High Court in Belize City. Lopez, a thirty-five-year-old father of four from Valley of Peace, was fatally shot during a robbery outside a bar on Barbara Harris Street in 2023.  The guilty plea came during a hearing to determine whether a caution statement Elijio gave police could be admitted as evidence. Elijio had claimed that police forced him to give the statement. A video-recorded interview was played in court during the hearing.  According to the account presented in court, Elijio and two other men planned to rob Lopez after seeing him with money at the bar. They later waited for him to leave. One man held Lopez at gunpoint while the other two, including Elijio, searched him.  Lopez was shot during the robbery and died while being taken to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital.  In his statement to police, Elijio said he had intended to take part in the robbery but had not intended for Lopez to be harmed. He denied being the shooter but acknowledged knowing that another member of the group had a firearm.  Justice Pilgrim addressed Elijio’s responsibility for his participation in the robbery, despite his account that he did not fire the shot.  Elijio was initially charged with murder in April 2023. When the case reached the High Court, he was indicted for manslaughter.