She pleaded guilty to manslaughter for the death of 3 of her children

Felicia Chen, 24, emerged from a room in the Supreme Court of Justice John “Troadio” Gonzalez this morning looking somber, as she took her seat in the prisoner’s dock to await sentencing for the three counts of manslaughter to which she had pleaded guilty last Thursday.

At exactly 10:35 a.m., Justice Gonzalez began to address Chen: “In passing sentence on you, Ms. Chen, I have concluded the following mitigating circumstances. I have considered that you have no previous conviction. I have also considered that you expressed sorrow for what you did to your children, and I have considered that you experienced pain and sorrow.”

Gonzalez continued: “In addition, I have considered what your witnesses said. And finally, I have looked at the sentencing guidelines that the Crown Counsel passed to me, and I think eight years is proper and fair. In imposing the eight years, I have taken into consideration the time you spent in prison.”

After Gonzalez handed down the sentence, Crown Counsel Sheiniza Smith rose to address the court.

Smith said: “There were three counts of manslaughter, Your Lordship.”

Justice Gonzalez replied, “Eight years for each count of manslaughter, to take effect from the date she pleaded guilty. The sentences are to run concurrently.”

In effect, therefore, Chen will spend a total of six years and nine months in prison.

Amandala was told that under the terms by which the court accepted her guilty of manslaughter plea, the sentencing guidelines range from 10 to 12 years in prison for “diminished responsibility” in law.

And like the Belize Court of Appeal ruling in Lavern “Anti-Christ” Longsworth’s murder case, the Felicia Chen case is precedent-setting, because the court has accepted the expert opinion of psychiatrists, who concluded that the two women could not be held legally responsible for the murders due to their mental state at the time when the murders were committed.

After the sentence was handed down, Leslie Mendez, the attorney for Felicia Chen, told reporters, “The factors that played a role in the sentencing was the fact that she pleaded guilty to the three counts of manslaughter, and had saved the court some time.”

Mendez said that the other fact that played a role in determining the sentence is that Chen was a victim of domestic violence, and that her mental state was impaired at the time.

“She has been diagnosed as suffering from severe depression,” Mendez pointed out, “with psychiatric symptoms, so that played a role in the sentencing, and also the defense when it comes to diminished responsibility.”

Mendez, after noting that the court did not mention any further treatment for Chen, stated, “We will be ensuring that she gets psychiatric treatment from a psychiatrist. She is also seeing a counselor, and she has also been getting some treatment at the prison. We will ensure that that continues while she serves her time.”

Mendez said that, “Justice has been served today and we are very grateful to the court for showing some leniency to Ms. Chen. To say that it is tragic is an understatement. But it is something that she will live with forever, and her feeling of guilt that she has expressed.”

On the morning of April 27, 2013, Felicia Chen left the home where she and her four children were residing at the Mile 8 community on the George Price Highway.

They took a bus and got off at the police checkpoint around Mile 4 ½. Chen then led her four children into the water at Belizean Beach, and began drowning them.

Her oldest child, a six-year-old, was the only child who managed to escape and she alerted neighbors in the area to what had just happened to her siblings.

Chen then attempted to drown herself, but was rescued before she could do so.

After months of psychiatric evaluation, she was eventually deemed fit to stand trial and was transferred from the mental hospital in Belmopan to the Belize Central Prison in Hattieville.

Just before she was transported back to the prison, Chen was seen in the Magistrate’s Court holding cell area being comforted by her mother, as she cried uncontrollably.