ONE OF FOUR ESCAPED PRISONERS RECAPTURED

October 22, 2007

One of the four prisoners that escaped from the Belize central Prison in the early morning hours of Sunday October 14, has been captured.  He is Terry Bainton who was serving eleven years for burglary.  On Friday police alerted the pubic that Bainton was last seen in the village of Hope Creek in the Stan Creek district.  However, police captured Bainton yesterday in Belize City.  Acting Police press officer Bart Jones gives us the details of the capture. 

Bart Jones,Acting Police press officer:

“Terry Bainton on Sunday or some time yesterday, he was at a house on Antelope Street. What happened was that, the police had received information about illegal activity at that house on Antelope Street and thereby they responded to that report. They searched the people there and nothing illegal was found and Terry Bainton was taken into custody. He has initially tried to give the police a wrong name and so he was charged for a mischievous act for that.” 

Arturo Cantun,Love FM:

“What happened to the other occupants of the house? Were they arrested for keeping a criminal at home?” 

Bart Jones,Acting Police press officer:

“That will be looked at and the investigation will be carried on from there.” 

With the capturing of Bainton, three more escaped prisoners remain fugitives.  They are Rupert Manzanero serving five years for burglary, Allan Cal serving twenty five years for manslaughter, and Gilbert Requena serving eighteen years for manslaughter.  It was reported that the prisoners escaped between twelve midnight and three a-m on Sunday morning while the prison was experiencing a series of power outages.  This morning Love News spoke with deputy chief executive officer at the Belize Central prison, Virgilio Murrillo who told us the matter is being investigated. 

Virgilio Murrillo,Chief Executive Officer at the Belize Central prison:

“We do have a generator but it doesn’t have the capacity to sustain the lighting, due to the fact that each of those bulbs are burning like 1,500 watts and it’s quite a number of them around the perimeter. So the generator is a bit too small to light those bulbs up so that all the building have light in them.” 

Arturo Cantun,Love FM:

“How is the central prison addressing this so that it doesn’t happen again?" 

Virgilio Murrillo,Chief Executive Officer at the Belize Central prison:

“Well we have taken a number of actions. We’ve definitely pulled through all the buildings. Everyday we do checks to try and find out anything such as hack-saw blade. Definitely the guards are more vigilant and we’re definitely looking at how we can get a generator that is able to sustain the prison and a proper lighting system whenever there is a blackout.” 

Love News asked Murrillo if they are ruling out the possibility that the four prisoners have been assisted by personnel form the prison to make their escape.   

Virgilio Murrillo,Chief Executive Officer at the Belize Central prison:

“I really don’t think that was the situation in this particular incident. I had imagined that definitely these guys took advantage of a situation. We do have quite a lot of blackouts at this prison for sure and there’s no doubt about that. It happens regularly and so I can’t comment on that one.” 

The four prisoners were being kept at the Multimax building and it is believed they used a hog saw to cut open two iron bars in order to escape.  Anyone knowing the whereabouts of the other three escaped prisoners is asked to call the police station and the police ask drivers to refrain from picking up strangers or anyone suspicious. 

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