BELMOPAN, Belize CMC – A 23-year-old mother, who allegedly drowned her three children at a beach last year, is to be sentenced at a later date after changing her guilty plea of murder.

Felicia Chen, who appeared with a new attorney in court, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter in the killing of the children on April 27, last year.

Chen, who had her first child at 15, is alleged to have drowned the children – one-year-old Trinaya Felicia Tuel, three-year-old Thomas Tuel and four-year-old Triana Tuel – by forcibly submerging them in the water in the first reported case of infanticide in Belize.

However, the eldest child ran for help and in the process escaped meeting the same fate as her other siblings.

Chen has been undergoing court-ordered psychiatric evaluation and according to psychologist Peter Quimbo, when she committed the offences she was suffering from diminished responsibility.

Based on his observation, the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution said it was accepting Chen’s new plea of manslaughter.

During the court hearing, her sister, Rosella Chen made an emotional plea for leniency saying that her sister has a daughter who still needs her.

The accused told the court that while she was not the best mother in the world, she loved her children and recognised that she had done wrong. She too urged the court to be lenient.

Her attorney, Leslie Mendez, told the court of the hardships facing her client, and that on the day of the incident, she had been hearing voices telling her to drown the children.

The attorney said she is hoping that when the sentence is handed down, a date for which has not yet been given, she hopes her client will receive less than the average 12 years that are usually given in diminished responsibility cases.

Mendez has also asked the court for her client to continue receiving psychiatric treatment.