Photo: Maynor Rene Ancona, charged
by Kristen Ku
BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Apr. 11, 2024
In Tuesday’s edition of the Amandala, it was reported that an American national, 46-year-old Jennifer Lynn Griffith, had died a day after sustaining injuries both from a golf cart accident with her husband and from the impact of a conch shell that had been thrown at her during a brawl that she had gotten involved in, with employees at a bar in San Pedro Town.
A postmortem exam had been scheduled to determine the exact cause of her death, and most importantly, to pinpoint who was responsible.
Today, the Commissioner of Police, Chester Williams, confirmed that the blow to Griffith’s head when the conch shell was thrown at her, is the injury that killed her. “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 were also found in her head. So, we can say definitively that it was the conch shell that caused her death,” Williams confirmed.
Following investigations and recorded statements from independent witnesses and the other persons involved in the brawl, police concluded that it was the victim’s husband, 41-year-old Maynor Rene Ancona, who threw the conch shell.
Although Ancona has not admitted to throwing the shell, police believe that the injury to Griffith was not intentional. “He was throwing it indiscriminately, and then it caught her,” Williams said. “For sure he did not intend to; but in law, there is a thing that is called ‘Transferred Malice’,” the Police Commissioner further explained.
This refers to the culpability, in the eyes of the law, of a person who intended to harm one person but caused a second person to be hurt instead.
Today, Ancona will be charged with Manslaughter by Negligence.
