Men sentenced for robbing Chef Master Restaurant

_{(Top l-r) Kareem Heusner, Raheem Brandon Budram, (Bottom l-r) Alton Garcia and Frank Lizama}

BELIZE CITY, Mon. Mar 3, 2025

On Tuesday, February 19, 2025, four men from Belize City were convicted of several offenses, including armed robbery and firearm and ammunition offenses, following the conclusion of their trial for the robbery of Chef Master Restaurant on Saint Thomas Street.

And this morning, the Chief Magistrate, Jayani Wegodapola, handed down their individual sentences.

The men are Kareem Heusner, 36; Raheem Brandon Budram, 24; Alton Garcia, 29; and 24-year-old Frank Lizama.

The men were also charged jointly with Shane Budram, who is now deceased and was the uncle of Raheem Budram, and Delroy Chaplin, also deceased.

For the robbery conviction, Raheem Budram, Kareem Heusner and Alton Garcia all received prison sentences of 4 years out of a possible 9 years, with the exception of Frank Lizama, who got a 2-year sentence. The sentences are to run consecutively with any other sentence they are presently serving. For the kept firearm without a gun license and kept ammunitions without a gun license charges, the men were all sentenced to 3 years on each count. Their 3 years each for the gun possession is to run consecutively with any other sentence they are serving, while the 3 years each for kept ammunitions is to run concurrently with the 3 years for the kept firearm offense. Their time on remand was deducted from the robbery sentence, and so in total, Budram will serve 6 years imprisonment; Heusner will serve 6 years 8 months; Lizama, who got the shortest sentence, will serve 4 years 7 months and 2 weeks; while Garcia will serve 6 years in prison like Budram.

The men have the right to submit an appeal, and have 21 days to do so from their time of conviction.

Last Friday, February 28, 2025, mitigation pleas were heard on behalf of the four men, who called character witnesses to testify in court.

Budram called one character witness to speak on his behalf, which was his father, Marlon Budram, before he himself said a few words expressing remorse for his action.

Raheem Budram said that before this conviction he was never convicted of any such charges, and so he asked the court for leniency and to show mercy on him.

He presented to the court several certificates of completion that proved his reformation since his incarceration at the Kolbe Foundation.

Heusner called two character witnesses: his father, Karl Heusner; and his brother, Khalil Heusner.

Alton Garcia, a father of 3 children, ages 4, 5 and 7, begged the court for leniency, and said that while he was convicted of these charges, he is now a changed man who ended up walking down the wrong path. Garcia got very emotional, and cried when he told the court that when his children saw him behind bars, they asked him why he was in jail, and he found it difficult to answer his children. He said his son told him that he needed food at home. Garcia said he has always been there for his children, and that he is their sole provider.

Garcia called two character witnesses: Elvis Rodriguez, his father; and Taesha Parks, his children’s mother.

Francis Lizama, who is a first-time offender and a former Youth Cadet and a volunteer BDF soldier from Hope Creek, was very emotional. The 25-year-old father has 2 children, ages 3 and 1, as well as an unborn child, and so he asked the court for a fine and not jail time as he needed to be there to provide for his family.

He told the court he lost his post as a member of the BDF after being charged criminally. He called his father and mother as character witnesses.

Both parents spoke well of their son. Francis Cobb Lizama, his father, said he as a retired BDF soldier worked closely with his son. His son, he added, was one of the first children from Hope Creek, his home town, to join the BDF Youth Cadet program for youths between the ages of 10 and 16. His son then joined the BDF Volunteer Battalion.

Of the four men who were on trial, only two were represented: Raheem Budram by attorney Norman Rodriguez; and Heusner by attorney Hubert Elrington; while Lizama and Garcia were unrepresented.

The four men have indicated that they will be appealing their convictions.

In his testimony during the trial, He Chen, a Chinese businessman had told police that he saw 2 males of dark complexion with firearms and masks covering their faces who forced him and his daughter into the restaurant.

Police had recovered two guns. One of the guns was found in the back pocket of the driver’s seat of the vehicle in which the convicted men were found; but the gun in the trial was not proven to be stolen, based on the Crown’s circumstantial evidence. However, the men were found guilty for possession of Chen’s black 380 auto Glock caliber pistol and the live rounds of ammunition found in the gun’s magazine.

On July 12, 2019, at about 12:05 a.m. the six accused men were detained and charged criminally.