Five Belize City men were this afternoon remanded on charges of keeping a firearm without a gun license and keeping ammunition without a gun license, after an attempt by one of them to plead guilty was not accepted when he appeared to differ with the facts of the case.
Steven Flowers, 22; Jeffrey Flowers, 28; Tylon Tillett, 30; Charles Young, Jr., 20; and Roberto Gilharry, 34, all of Belize City, appeared this afternoon in #5 Magistrate’s Court, charged with keeping a 9mm pistol and 12 live 9mm rounds in their possession, none of them carrying a valid gun license. Tillett appeared in court with Ellis Arnold, Senior Counsel, as his attorney.
Steven and Jeffrey Flowers, Tillett and Young all pleaded not guilty to both charges; however, Gilharry pleaded guilty to both and appeared to accept Magistrate Albert Hoare’s admonition that he was looking at a custodial sentence, no fine, and a minimum of two years’ imprisonment on each charge if he agreed to maintain his plea.
But the prosecutor indicated that the case would proceed against the other four men despite the guilty plea.
The facts as read in court were that Constable Norman Bol and two fellow officers were on patrol on Baymen Avenue on Friday morning, September 17, when P.C. Bol’s attention was drawn to a green Toyota Camry with Dangriga license plates D-00074, which police described as being “heavily tinted,” going in the opposite direction. The police mobile containing the three officers reversed course and took off after the Camry, which led them into Calle al Mar near a dead-end street.
According to P.C. Bol, the driver of the vehicle got out and approached the officers. P.C. Bol then claimed to have seen Jeffrey Flowers throw a black object out of the vehicle and over a nearby fence. All of the vehicle’s other occupants then got out and were detained and the object, later determined to be a 9mm Luger pistol, was recovered. The men were duly charged and cautioned at Queen Street Police Station.
Gilharry objected in court to the prosecution’s claim that Jeffrey Flowers was seen throwing away the gun. But as that is a matter to be proven in court, Magistrate Hoare entered an equivocal plea of “not guilty” for Gilharry and remanded all five without bail per the statutes on gun offences, until their next court appearance on October 20, 2010.
It is believed that the five men, all no strangers to the law, were on their way to commit a robbery at the time of the incident.