BELMOPAN, Belize, CMC – Police Commissioner Chester Williams has confirmed that a 41-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter by negligence following the death of his wife, who was hit on the head with a conch shell.
The police said that Jennifer Lynn Griffith died after being hit by the conch during a brawl involving her husband, Maynor Rene Ancona over the last weekend in San Pedro Town.
They said while Ancona has not confessed to accidentally killing his wife, investigators have enough evidence to substantiate the charge.
“The pathologist certified that the lady died from a penetration to the head by a projectile. I also think that fragments of the conch shell was also found in her head. And so we can see definitively now that it was a conch shell that caused, caused her death,” Williams told reporters.
“The question now, is who threw the conch shell that caused her death. And, we have recorded a number of statements from persons who were involved in the fight as well as other independent witnesses.
“And from the investigation, it appeared that, we can confirm from the investigation that the person who threw the projectile that caused the death of the American woman is her husband. And so he will be charged today for manslaughter by negligence.”
Williams said that the husband “was throwing it indiscriminately and then it caught her and that led to her death. It’s a very sad situation.
“I know that he must be going through a very, very difficult time now. He lost his wife. And now he has to be charged for it. For sure, he did not intend to, but in law there is a thing that is called transfer of malice,” Williams told reporters.
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