Last Suspect Acquitted in 2020 Rosa Chinchilla Murder Case

The last man facing murder charges in connection with the 2020 killing of 59-year-old Rosa Chinchilla has been acquitted, bringing an end to the murder trial nearly six years after the woman was found fatally injured inside her Lindo’s Alley home in Belize City. Santos Eduardo Lopez Zepeda was freed of the murder charge on Friday after Justice Nigel Pilgrim upheld a no-case submission made by his attorney, Erin Quiros. The ruling meant that Zepeda was not required to present a defence, as the court found that the prosecution had not produced sufficient evidence to safely link him to Chinchilla’s death.  Chinchilla was killed on August 17, 2020. Her throat had been slit, but before she died, she reportedly wrote a blood-stained note in Spanish which police interpreted as referring to a worker named Jose connected to Fito, a construction company. The note became a central part of the police investigation and led investigators to examine contacts on Chinchilla’s phone, as well as Social Security cards she kept at her home.  Police eventually charged Zepeda and Angel Adolfo Garcia Alvarez with murder. The prosecution’s case against Zepeda included evidence that a contact in Chinchilla’s phone appeared to be linked to him, as well as clothing recovered from his home that appeared to have blood stains. However, testing on the clothing was inconclusive.  In his ruling, Justice Pilgrim found that there was no reliable evidence identifying Zepeda as the person who attacked Chinchilla. The judge also raised concerns about the police investigation, including the failure to properly pursue the identity of “Jose,” the absence of evidence establishing a connection between Zepeda and Chinchilla, concerns that the crime scene had been compromised, and the failure to access the victim’s phone.  The court also gave little weight to the note left by Chinchilla, finding that it was not safe to rely on it as evidence against Zepeda. Justice Pilgrim further noted the absence of medical evidence and other gaps in the investigation.  Zepeda was the second accused man to be removed from the case. On June 8, Angel Alvarez walked free after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions entered a nolle prosequi, effectively discontinuing the murder proceedings against him. That followed a ruling that his alleged caution statement to police was inadmissible.  While Zepeda has been acquitted of murder, he remains on remand on a separate charge of escaping from lawful custody in 2025.