Post by Deleted on Jan 11, 2011 21:12:59 GMT -5
What a sad story for everybody involved.
www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011301119917
Published: January 12. 2011 1:16AM
Teri Rhodes to be sentenced on Feb. 4 for killing infant in 2007
By LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com
Former Mercyhurst College student Teri Rhodes admitted more than two years ago that she committed voluntary manslaughter when she smothered her newborn daughter in a college apartment.
Her sentence for the crime, which has been tied up in court appeals since 2008, could finally be decided in February.
Erie County President Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. has scheduled a sentencing hearing on Feb. 4 for Rhodes, who has remained free on bond since her arrest on homicide charges in August 2007.
Rhodes won an appeal in December that challenged the nine- to 18-year prison sentence handed down in November 2008 by Judge William R. Cunningham.
The Supreme Court let stand a 2009 Superior Court ruling that deemed the sentence illegal and faulted Cunningham for sentencing Rhodes for the crime of first-degree murder, when she had not pleaded guilty to that crime.
DiSantis must now resentence Rhodes in accordance with that ruling.
A standard-range voluntary manslaughter sentence for someone of Rhodes' background would fall between three and four and a half years. An aggravated range sentence would be up to five and a half years.
Rhodes' attorney, Philip Friedman, has in the past advocated for a reduced sentence, bringing up Rhodes' otherwise clean criminal record.
At sentencing, Friedman has said, he plans to focus on Rhodes and her life.
District Attorney Jack Daneri declined to comment Tuesday on what sentence the prosecution would seek.
He said the office will file a memorandum for the judge at a later date outlining its position on sentencing.
The case began with the Aug. 12, 2007, discovery of the body of Rhodes' newly delivered baby girl wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden in the shower of her student apartment.
Rhodes, then 18, had returned to the Mercyhurst College campus to begin training for the volleyball team. She had a partial scholarship to play volleyball at Mercyhurst, where she was studying biology and medical technology.
She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Aug. 5, 2008. In her guilty plea hearing before Cunningham, Rhodes, a devout Roman Catholic, maintained that she was in denial about the pregnancy and overcome by the trauma of a breech delivery. The circumstances provoked her to kill, she said.
Cunningham, who had earlier rejected a plea to involuntary manslaughter, accepted the plea to the first-degree felony charge of voluntary manslaughter.
But at sentencing on Nov. 21, 2008, Cunningham told the parties he had independently investigated the case and rejected Rhodes' explanation for the killing.
He said he believed Rhodes had researched ways to kill a fetus, had continually denied the pregnancy and failed to accept help from others who had asked if she was pregnant.
Cunningham said his sentence was intended to hold Rhodes accountable for a premeditated and intentional killing, or first-degree murder.
In a precedent-setting decision, a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court ruled in a unanimous, forcefully worded opinion that Cunningham abused his discretion and handed down a sentence that was "inappropriate, unjustified and prejudicial."
It ordered that Rhodes' sentence be overturned and ordered that Cunningham be removed from the case.
www.goerie.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011301119917
Published: January 12. 2011 1:16AM
Teri Rhodes to be sentenced on Feb. 4 for killing infant in 2007
By LISA THOMPSON
lisa.thompson@timesnews.com
Former Mercyhurst College student Teri Rhodes admitted more than two years ago that she committed voluntary manslaughter when she smothered her newborn daughter in a college apartment.
Her sentence for the crime, which has been tied up in court appeals since 2008, could finally be decided in February.
Erie County President Judge Ernest J. DiSantis Jr. has scheduled a sentencing hearing on Feb. 4 for Rhodes, who has remained free on bond since her arrest on homicide charges in August 2007.
Rhodes won an appeal in December that challenged the nine- to 18-year prison sentence handed down in November 2008 by Judge William R. Cunningham.
The Supreme Court let stand a 2009 Superior Court ruling that deemed the sentence illegal and faulted Cunningham for sentencing Rhodes for the crime of first-degree murder, when she had not pleaded guilty to that crime.
DiSantis must now resentence Rhodes in accordance with that ruling.
A standard-range voluntary manslaughter sentence for someone of Rhodes' background would fall between three and four and a half years. An aggravated range sentence would be up to five and a half years.
Rhodes' attorney, Philip Friedman, has in the past advocated for a reduced sentence, bringing up Rhodes' otherwise clean criminal record.
At sentencing, Friedman has said, he plans to focus on Rhodes and her life.
District Attorney Jack Daneri declined to comment Tuesday on what sentence the prosecution would seek.
He said the office will file a memorandum for the judge at a later date outlining its position on sentencing.
The case began with the Aug. 12, 2007, discovery of the body of Rhodes' newly delivered baby girl wrapped in a plastic bag and hidden in the shower of her student apartment.
Rhodes, then 18, had returned to the Mercyhurst College campus to begin training for the volleyball team. She had a partial scholarship to play volleyball at Mercyhurst, where she was studying biology and medical technology.
She pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter on Aug. 5, 2008. In her guilty plea hearing before Cunningham, Rhodes, a devout Roman Catholic, maintained that she was in denial about the pregnancy and overcome by the trauma of a breech delivery. The circumstances provoked her to kill, she said.
Cunningham, who had earlier rejected a plea to involuntary manslaughter, accepted the plea to the first-degree felony charge of voluntary manslaughter.
But at sentencing on Nov. 21, 2008, Cunningham told the parties he had independently investigated the case and rejected Rhodes' explanation for the killing.
He said he believed Rhodes had researched ways to kill a fetus, had continually denied the pregnancy and failed to accept help from others who had asked if she was pregnant.
Cunningham said his sentence was intended to hold Rhodes accountable for a premeditated and intentional killing, or first-degree murder.
In a precedent-setting decision, a three-judge panel of the state Superior Court ruled in a unanimous, forcefully worded opinion that Cunningham abused his discretion and handed down a sentence that was "inappropriate, unjustified and prejudicial."
It ordered that Rhodes' sentence be overturned and ordered that Cunningham be removed from the case.
