Tonight, 26 year-old Oscar Maldonado, and 32 year-old Jewel Palma are at the Belize Central Prison serving out the rest their prison sentence for the 2009 killing of the Taiwanese businessman, Tsong Min Liou.
Their sentence of 16 years was whittled down to 8 months by Justice Colin Williams on Friday.
Both men were charged with murder for Liou’s death, but they both pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Arriving to this sentence Justice Collin Williams said he took into consideration that they had pleaded guilty and saved the court time, that several character witnesses had testified on their behalf and that Maldonado was a minor when he committed the offence. He said that they were allowed a reduction of a third of the sentence of 16 years or 192 months, which leaves 128 months. He said a further reduction of 6 months is warranted because the mitigating factors slightly outweighed the aggravating factors. With the deduction of 6 months the balance would be 122 months. He said that they had been on remand for an excess of 9 years and 6 months, a figure he rounded off to 114 months.
The judge said that when 114 months is subtracted from 122 months it leaves a only 8 months, which is the remaining time that Maldonado and Palma have left to serve. Maldonado was represented by attorney Leo Bradley Jr, while Palma was represented by attorney Kathleen Lewis. The Crown was represented by Crown Counsel Janelle Thomas-Shorter.
Email
Print