The engineer who labored aboard the identical yacht as Paige Bell was formally indicted this month for her homicide within the Bahamas. He has entered a not-guilty plea.
Brigido Munoz, a 39-year-old Mexican nationwide and resident, appeared earlier than the Supreme Courtroom of the Bahamas on December 17. He stays in jail, pending one other courtroom look on January 21, 2026. A trial date will comply with.
The Royal Bahamas Police Drive arrested Munoz and charged him with homicide on July 9. This was six days after initially investigating an incident aboard the yacht Far From It, docked in Harbour Island. Based on their report, a caller round 1 p.m. on July 3 requested officers come to the 141-footer (43-meter). Upon arrival, officers found 20-year-old Bell within the engine room, unresponsive and with noticeable accidents. A physician pronounced her lifeless on the scene. The police report additional indicated that Bell was lacking for a short time previous to an unnamed particular person discovering her within the engine room. Munoz was within the engine room as nicely, acutely aware and with what police suspected had been self-inflicted wounds to his arms. The officers despatched him for medical help.
Bahamian regulation didn’t require Munoz to enter a plea in courtroom on July 9. Nonetheless, the Justice of the Peace did order Munoz held with out bail till a listening to in November. On November 21, Munoz reappeared in courtroom, the place he was served and signed a voluntary invoice of indictment for Bell’s homicide. Within the Bahamas, a voluntary invoice of indictment offers the Supreme Courtroom jurisdiction over a case. This due to this fact led to the December 17 Supreme Courtroom look.
Prosecutors haven’t disclosed whether or not Munoz has a felony historical past. Regardless, yacht crew and extra yachting professionals are vociferously calling for traditional industry-wide background checks for crewmembers. Anecdotal proof means that few yacht managers and crew recruiters recurrently carry out background checks. After Bell’s loss of life, we contacted 19 corporations offering yacht-management and crew-placement companies, particularly asking them whether or not they analysis potential hires to this diploma. Solely three of the 19 corporations replied on the document, with one of many three indicating it routinely conducts checks.
Requires change within the {industry} will not be new. Jessie Frost, the founding father of the crew-recruitment company Crewfolio, initiated a Change.org petition calling for necessary felony checks for crewmembers two years in the past. At present, it has greater than 6,000 signatures, half of which have are available in since Bell’s loss of life. “Total, whereas there are present laws and pointers associated to working at sea, there are at the moment no common provisions associated to background checks for seafarers internationally,” Frost says.
As soon as the petition reaches 10,000 signatures, Frost intends to current it to flag states, the ILO, and the UK’s Maritime and Coastguard Company (MCA). “it’s about utilizing present techniques that already work in different industries like aviation and business delivery,” she explains. “We’re calling for a renewable two-year background verify certificates, handled identical to an ENG1 or STCW.”
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