Calaney Flowers Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter

Calaney Flowers, the woman who was initially charged with the murder of twenty-nine-year-old Lyndon Morrison, pleaded guilty to manslaughter today. Flowers was also charged with the attempted murder of Morrison’s girlfriend, Sochyl Sosa.

The incident happened in August 2012. Flowers ran over Morrison on Freetown Road in Belize City. After spending years in pretrial detention at the Belize Central Prison, Flowers was acquitted of the charges. However, the Director of Public Prosecutions successfully appealed the acquittal, leading to a retrial today.

In a dramatic turn of events, Flowers, now thirty-seven and an entrepreneur, took a plea bargain, pleading guilty to manslaughter. She was sentenced to 10 years but was released from jail after Justice Sylvester credited her with five years for time already served and suspended the remaining five years. Justice Sylvester considered both aggravating and mitigating factors in the case and concluded that Flowers, after 12 years in the criminal justice system, was unlikely to reoffend.