BELIZE CITY, Wed. Jan. 22, 2020– A charge of attempted murder against Elden Flowers, 22, was upgraded to murder today because the victim, Richard O’Neal, has died. Flowers was arraigned before Senior Magistrate Tricia Pitts Anderson. He was further remanded until March 31.

On November 27, 2019, O’Neal, who resided on Ordonez Street in Belize City, was kidnapped and was taken to an area on the Burrell Boom/Hattieville Road. He was then shot and dumped on the roadside and left for dead.

But he survived and the police, who were alerted about the shooting, took him to the Karl Heusner Memorial Hospital, where he was admitted to ward in a critical condition.

Three weeks later, however, O’Neal succumbed to his injuries, and as a result, Flowers, who had been charged with attempted murder, was then charged with murder.

It is not Flowers’ first murder charge. In 2017, he was charged with the murder of Randolph Johnson, 19, who was shot and killed, but in July last year, he was acquitted of Johnson’s murder by Justice Colin Williams in a trial that was conducted without a jury.