Three and a half years after a horrific New Year’s Eve shooting left three members of a Belmopan family dead and one injured, the long-awaited sentencing of convicted former police corporal Elmer Nah has been adjourned at the eleventh hour. Presiding trial judge Justice Nigel Pilgrim announced Thursday that he requires additional time to thoroughly review all legal and victim submissions presented to the court, pushing the final sentencing decision to 9 a.m. Friday.
Nah was found guilty on May 29 of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder for the 2022 attack that targeted the Ramnarace family in their Belmopan home. The gun violence immediately claimed the lives of brothers Jon and David Ramnarace. Jon’s wife, Vivian Belisle Ramnarace, survived the initial shooting but ultimately died from her injuries later. The fourth victim, Yemi Alberto, escaped the attack with his life.
During Thursday’s sentencing hearing, prosecution attorneys and surviving members of the Ramnarace family pushed the court to deliver the maximum possible penalty: a life sentence. Their argument centered on the extreme brutality of the crime and the irreversible, lifelong harm the massacre has inflicted on the victim’s extended family and community, asserting that the severity of Nah’s actions demands the harshest punishment allowed under Belizean law.
The guilty verdict in Nah’s trial rested heavily on a pivotal piece of evidence: the testimony that Vivian Belisle Ramnarace gave prior to her death. In his May ruling, Justice Pilgrim characterized her first-hand account of the attack as consistently credible and reliable, noting that surveillance and body camera video evidence collected by investigators aligned perfectly with her description of the event. The judge also fully rejected Nah’s attempts to account for his whereabouts the night of the shooting, concluding that the former law enforcement officer had intentionally fabricated his story to mislead both investigators and the court.