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Lucilla Bartley acquitted of murder

By on May 9, 2015
Lucilla Bartley

Lucilla Bartley

Belize City. Saturday, May 9, 2015. 53 year old Lucilla Bartley of Belize City spent four years in prison awaiting trial on murder charges, after she says she was forced to defend herself from a jealous former lover, 50 year old Osbourne “Fish” Gordon.

That trial took place this week and on Friday morning, Supreme Court Justice Troadio Gonzalez handed down his decision, finding Bartley not guilty of murder.

Between 9:30 pm on April 23, 2011 and 1 am on April 24, 2011, Bartley was locked in a deadly struggle for her life with Gordon, which only ended when she stabbed him twice in the chest with his own knife, which he had earlier put to her throat, threatening to kill her in the presence of witnesses.

The prosecution, represented by Crown Counsel Leeroy Banner, provided no eyewitness accounts of its own, and so judge Gonzalez relied primarily on the testimony of Bartley, who readily admitted to causing Gordon’s death, but only in trying to prevent her own.

According to Bartley, Gordon approached her while she was with a male friend, saying she would die that night and that he was tired of her disrespecting him.

He then attacked her with the knife he was carrying while warning off her companion.

As they struggled the knife fell to the ground and a passing vehicle stopped which she tried to get into to escape but Gordon intervened.

She then went for the knife and delivered the fatal injuries.

Thereafter, she went to a justice of the peace and told her account, repeating it to the police afterward despite needing urgent medical treatment.

Bradley describes the lengthy wait for justice as a travesty, as the facts of the case clearly established self-defence, which is a total defence to an accusation of murder.

He told reporters that while the case was tried without jury as all such cases have since 2011, Bartley’s peers would have come to the same conclusion as Justice Gonzalez.

Bartley is a mother of five and claimed her prior relationship with Gordon, who worked in the fish market, was abusive and violent.

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