‘He told the cops everything that he knew,’ girlfriend says
He has not been charged in relation to the murders.
“Our client maintains his innocence with respect to both matters,” Deshaies’s lawyer Estevan Perera told the Star in an email Tuesday, adding that Deshaies intends to apply for bail Friday.
Speaking from Belize, Jasmine Lizarraga, who says she is Deshaies’s girlfriend, said Deshaies lived with Matus for about two years and that they were “very close” friends.
“Francesca didn’t have no problems with John, John didn’t have no problems with Francesca,” Lizarraga said. “John, he is innocent. He didn’t do this.”
Deshaies was out of town when Matus disappeared, Lizarraga said, but returned to Corozal to help with the search efforts.
She and Deshaies left for San Ignacio, in west Belize, a few days later, but then got a call from a friend saying police had found the bodies and wanted to talk to them.
Lizarraga said she and Deshaies went to the police station in Belize’s capital, Belmopan, to give their statements.
“He told the cops everything that he knew . . . the cops didn’t believe him, they detained both of us and since then, the cops think that he had something to do with it and they have him as a suspect,” Lizarraga said, adding that she was questioned for three days then released.
Lizarraga also said the theft charges against Deshaies are unfounded, explaining that he was an employee of the casino and had been told to remove the electronics so they could be used at another location.
Deshaies is doing “terrible,” Lizarraga added.
“I can’t take clothing for him, he’s still got the same clothing from the day they arrested him,” she said. “I don’t want to go back to (Matus’s) house . . . I’m afraid to go there right now, I don’t want nothing do to with that, so I can’t go and get clothes for him.”