Murder Case Dropped Against Peter Amado Lara After DPP Enters Nolle Prosequi

Twenty-three-year-old Peter Amado Lara is tonight a free man after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions entered a nolle prosequi, bringing an end to the murder case against him.  Lara appeared this morning before Justice Derick Sylvester in the High Court, where his trial had been scheduled to begin. However, the proceedings were halted when the DPP’s office formally discontinued the matter. No reason was given in court for the decision.  Lara, who was initially arraigned at age twenty-two on Tuesday, January 28, 2025, had been charged for the shooting murder of twenty-four-year-old Mark Anthony Leslie Waight and the attempted murder of Francis Herbert. Following the court’s ruling and with no other matters pending before the court, Lara was released from custody after spending one year, one month, three weeks and two days on remand at the Belize Central Prison.  The charges stemmed from a deadly shooting on the night of Saturday, January 25, 2025, along Central American Boulevard. Police had reported that Waight, also known as “Peto,” was among a group socializing outside a residence when an argument reportedly broke out and gunfire erupted.  Officers responding to the scene found Waight partially submerged in a nearby drain with fatal injuries. A second victim, thirty-three-year-old Francis Herbert, sustained multiple gunshot wounds and was rushed to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital for treatment.  Residents in the area reported hearing more than a dozen shots. Investigators had recovered several expended shells and reviewed surveillance footage as part of the probe.  With the Crown’s decision to discontinue the prosecution, the case against Lara has formally come to an end unless the matter is refiled in the future.