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Calaney Flowers Acquitted of Murder of Baby Daddy
posted (June 10, 2019)
Viewers may remember the March 2017 acquittal of Calaney Flowers. Just over 2 years ago, she walked out of the court room of the retired judge, Justice Troadio Gonzalez, a free woman after he found her not guilty of both murder and attempted murder.

Back in August of 2012, she was charged with these offenses for the accident which led to the death of her baby's father, 29 year-old Lyndon Morrison, and the severe injuries suffered by Sochyl Sosa, who was Morrison's new girlfriend at the time.

On the night of August 28th, 2012, Morrison and Sosa were traveling on Freetown Road in Belize City on his red Suzuki motorcycle. They were passing in front of Central Assembly of God Church, when Flowers knocked them down with her car. Both victims were launched off the motorcycle due to the impact, and they both suffered severe head and bodily injuries. Sosa managed to survive after medical treatment, but Lyndon Morrison did not.

Flowers stood trial without jury in June of 2016, where the prosecution led evidence against her that she intentionally ran into the back of the motorcycle and caused the deadly accident. After a 9-month wait for Justice Gonzalez's verdict, he returned and acquitted her of both charges, much the outrage of Morrison's family.

Well, the DPP's Office is not letting that acquittal stand. They have commenced an appeal against her acquittal, and that case came up today for case management before a panel of the Appeal Court judges.

This afternoon's hearing focused on housekeeping matters in the case, and when she exited court today, the Senior Crown Counsel granted us an interview discussing the reasons for the appeal. Here's what she told us about why the DPP's Office is attempting to get it overturned:

Sheneiza Smith - Senior Crown Counsel
"What happened at the trial, the trial judge had found that Miss Flowers caused the accident of the deceased. He found that there was no specific intention to kill, but the trial judge had failed to consider the alternative charge of manslaughter, the statutory alternative. So, our appeal is based, 1, on the fact that the judgment of the trial judge was unreasonable because having accepted the prosecution's evidence, which was one which suggested that the accused intentionally ran the car into the deceased's motorcycle, and therefore had the specific intention to kill. So, our position is that the judgment of the court, in finding that there was no specific intention to kill was inconsistent with him accepting our evidence, and secondly, that he failed to consider the statutory alternative, which was manslaughter."

"So, the applicant, which is us, we have 6 weeks from today's date to file and serve our arguments, and the respondent has 6 week from receipt of ours, to file their response, and then we have an additional 10 days to respond - reply if necessary."

That appeal case is expected to take place in a few months time during the next session of the Court of Appeal. We'll be there to tell you how it goes.

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