WEST PALM BEACH — A father of five accused of kidnapping a man and shooting him to death pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday. He did so on the eve of his trial, earning a fraction of the penalty he risked had jurors instead convicted him of murder.
Circuit Judge Daliah Weiss sentenced 39-year-old Wareno Belizaire to 15 years in prison, in accordance with a deal between Assistant Public Defender Courtney Wilson and Assistant State Attorney Courtney Behar. Belizaire is the second of four co-defendants to plead guilty in connection with the Sept. 20, 2021, death of Kyle Smith.
Palm Beach County sheriff's deputies found Smith's body on the side of State Road 80, near Twenty-Mile Bend, with a gunshot wound to the chest. Severiano Pedican, Smith's cousin who escaped from the same men suspected of killing Smith, helped lead investigators back to Belizaire.
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Pedican told investigators that he and Smith tried brokering a drug deal between Belizaire and others at a warehouse on Donna Road in suburban West Palm Beach the day before Smith's body was found. Belizaire drew a gun from his waistband and ordered the cousins to lay on the ground.
"You guys are going to die today," Pedican said Belizaire told them.
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Pedican said Belizaire pistol-whipped the men and took their cellphones, standing guard until two of his associates joined him. Deputies recovered surveillance-camera footage from the warehouse that recorded the associates escorting Pedican at gunpoint into one of the assailant's cars.
Belizaire remained inside the warehouse with Smith. It was the last time Pedican saw him alive.
Smith's cousin told deputies he was driven to a residence in the West Palm Beach area, where someone ordered that he be moved to another location and killed. Upon arriving in the area of Lake Arjaro, off 45th Street west of Military Trail, two kidnappers tried to carry out the order.
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Pedican fled on foot and later identified Belizaire in a police lineup. Deputies searched Belizaire's home and found boxes of ammunition, Smith's blue sandals and a glove stained with his blood.
Belizaire denied shooting anyone, telling deputies he had no memory of the day Smith was killed. Had he proceeded to trial and failed to convince jurors of his innocence, their guilty verdict for first-degree murder would have paved the way for an automatic life sentence in state prison.
Charged as an accessory to Smith's murder, 27-year-old Netanya Succes pleaded guilty in June. She did so without negotiating a plea deal with prosecutors, leaving Weiss to decide her sentence at a later date. Amirah Pettus, 23, and Richardson Francois, 34, are also charged as accessories to first-degree murder. Neither has pleaded guilty.
The family of Smith, whose age and place of residence are not listed in court records, watched Belizaire plead guilty on Monday. When given the opportunity to speak, none did.
Hannah Phillips covers criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism and subscribe today.
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