Collin Francis sentenced to 16 years for manslaughter of Nestor Vasquez, 10 years for attempted murder of nurse

By Breaking Belize News Staff: Seven years after Nestor Vasquez, 60, was fatally beaten inside a police holding cell, Collin Francis, 33, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.

High Court Justice Nigel Pilgrim also sentenced Francis to 10 years for the attempted murder of psychiatric nurse Augustina Elijio. The sentences will run concurrently and take effect from June 6, 2019, meaning the time Francis has already spent in custody will count toward his sentence.

Francis pleaded guilty earlier this year to both offences after psychiatric evidence established that he had been suffering from schizophrenia and was experiencing an acute psychotic episode at the time of the attacks. He had initially faced a murder charge for Vasquez’s death, but the Crown later accepted manslaughter on the basis of diminished responsibility.

Elijio was attacked on June 4, 2019, at the Port Loyola Health Centre, where Francis had gone seeking mental-health treatment. Public reports at the time said he returned to the facility in an agitated state and stabbed Elijio multiple times.

Francis was subsequently detained at the Queen Street Police Station. Two days later, Vasquez was placed in the same holding area with him and was brutally beaten. Vasquez suffered massive blunt-force trauma and died at the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital on June 8. Police later acknowledged serious failures surrounding the incident, and three officers were placed on interdiction and faced disciplinary proceedings.

Vasquez was the brother of Channel 7 News Director, Jules Vasquez, who attended Monday’s sentencing. Speaking about the case, Jules said he believes police failed his brother by placing him in a cell with Francis despite Francis’s mental condition and the fact that he had attacked Elijio only days earlier.

The case was delayed for years because of questions surrounding Francis’s fitness to stand trial. Justice Pilgrim found Francis unfit to plead in February 2024 and ordered that his condition be medically reviewed every six months. A psychiatrist later assessed Francis as fit to stand trial in 2026.

In his sentencing decision, however, Justice Pilgrim strongly criticized the failure of prison authorities to carry out the court-ordered periodic psychiatric assessments. The judge noted that several reviews should have occurred before Francis was eventually reassessed and said the failure created uncertainty over whether Francis may have regained fitness much earlier.

Justice Pilgrim ruled that it would therefore be unfair to exclude the period during which Francis was deemed unfit from his time served, saying the failure by the authorities to comply with the court’s order should not operate to Francis’s disadvantage.

“There is no excuse for failing to fulfil a court order,” the judge said, while also stressing the State’s constitutional responsibility to provide adequate resources, including psychiatric services, for the proper functioning of the criminal justice system.

Justice Pilgrim also raised the broader issue of how Belize handles accused persons suffering from severe mental illness and recommended that lawmakers examine the need for an appropriate facility to accommodate and treat persons in circumstances such as Francis’s.

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