Motorist who killed two, cops a plea

A man has pled guilty to charges arising from a double traffic fatality. On Monday, forty-four year old Valentine Ferguson was slated to be tried for two counts of manslaughter by negligence in the courtroom of Justice Adolph Lucas. But before the proceedings formally began, Ferguson opted to plead guilty to the lesser charge of causing death by careless conduct. He will be sentenced later this week and Justice Lucas has asked that the families of the deceased appear in court to find out if they have received any compensation. According to court sources, while manslaughter by negligence carries a prison term of up to twenty years, careless conduct is punishable with a fine. On June nineteenth, 2004, Ferguson was driving north from Belize City when he collided into a vehicle driven by Thaddeus Young around mile eight on the Northern Highway. Young’s passenger, Lillian Smith, who was coming from the States to surprise her sister, died as a result of the impact, as did Ferguson’s common-law wife, Millicent Herrera.