WILKES-BARRE - The mother charged in the cover-up of a teenager's killing in Wilkes-Barre in April was expected to plead guilty Friday morning, but backed out when she learned prosecutors were pushing for jail time.
When Angelina P. Deabreu, 30, arrived in court, prosecutors say she expected probation for her alleged role in covering up her son's fatal shooting of 14-year-old Tyler Winstead inside her apartment on April 5.
"We wanted jail time. We wanted an aggravated sentence," Luzerne County District Attorney Stefanie Salavantis told reporters. "We would like to see a harsher penalty. In this case, the family and community went through a lot when it came to the dishonesty brought to us by Mrs. Deabreu."
Mrs. Deabreu was not home when the shooting occurred. Prosecutors say her son, Elijah Yussuf, then 13, accidentally shot Tyler while playing with the gun, dragged his body on the sidewalk and concocted a story that the boy was wounded in a drive-by shooting. Police said the gun was in a lockbox in the home, but it wasn't secured.
Mrs. Deabreu tried to protect Elijah by lying to investigators and advancing the theory that Tyler was killed in a random drive-by shooting, prosecutors say. She hid the gun and cleaned the shooting scene in her Hill Street apartment with bleach, police say.
Elijah had a court hearing Nov. 2 for an undisclosed charge in juvenile court, but details, as with all information about his case, have not been released because of the secrecy of juvenile court. He remains jailed in a juvenile detention center, where he could remain until age 21.
Tyler's death led to a communitywide focus on youth violence and the creation of the Building Bridges program in Wilkes-Barre.
Mrs. Deabreu faces a maximum prison term of nine years if convicted of the charges: tampering with evidence, corruption of minors and making false reports to law enforcement, all misdemeanors. Her attorney, Tom Marsilio, said he was under the impression prosecutors were OK with a probation sentence when they agreed to a guilty plea with immediate sentencing. In this case, he believed probation was the likely penalty because the charges are all misdemeanors and Mrs. Deabreu has no criminal history, he said.
"Let's just say that was an assumption on my part," Mr. Marsilio said. "I was not aware the commonwealth was pushing for incarceration."
A pretrial hearing in the case was set for Dec. 19.
Contact the writer: bkalinowski@citizensvoice.com