Black Teen Who Strangled 12 Year-Old White Girl, Dumped Body in Garbage, Gets Only 17 Years
Aug 9, 2013 Toro520
Excerpted from The South Jersey Times:
Little more than 10 feet separated Justin Robinson from Autumn Pasquale's father in an open Gloucester County courtroom Wednesday morning when Robinson, now 16, pleaded guilty to choking the pre-teen to death in October.
"He sat there and listened," said Doug Long, attorney and spokesman for Anthony Pasquale, Autumn's father.
Days after Autumn, a Clayton Middle School student, went missing, the 12-year-old's body was discovered — strangled — in a recycling container on an abandoned property next door to the Robinsons' home.
Justin Robinson, then 15, and his 17-year-old brother Donte, were charged last fall with the girl's murder.
Until Wednesday, all juvenile court proceedings in the murder case had been conducted behind locked courtroom doors. Donte Robinson's charges are still pending in closed juvenile court in Gloucester County.
Before a small crowd Wednesday — including Autumn's parents, her godfather Paul Spadafora, and Justin Robinson's mother and stepfather — a shackled Robinson appeared in open court for the first time to enter his plea.
In an 11 a.m. closed juvenile court hearing before Family Division Superior Court Judge Colleen Maier, Robinson was voluntarily waived to open adult court.
An hour later, the Clayton teen was before Superior Court Judge Walter Marshall to plead guilty to aggravated manslaughter, which, as part of his plea agreement, could carry a maximum prison sentence of 17 years. He would be eligible for parole after serving 85 percent of the sentence, about 14.5 years. Robinson would be 30.
"Because of Robinson's age at the time of the killing, this was not an automatic waiver," said Camden County Prosecutor Warren W. Faulk, whose office took over prosecution of the murder case in February.
"While evidence strongly pointed to the fact Autumn Pasquale was murdered in the family home," Faulk said, "proving without reasonable doubt he was the killer would have been difficult" without the teenager's admission of guilt.
In court, Robinson said he acted alone. His brother, he said, had no idea what was going on. Robinson also indicated his mother and stepfather were not at home at the time.
In a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Faulk said Robinson "did not give a motive" for killing the girl.
Faulk called the plea agreement "fair and equitable in the interest of justice."
Those closest to the girl and her family, however, aren't so sure.
"No amount of punishment is going to be enough," Long said. "On the other side of the coin, a resolution and closure of the criminal process takes place so Autumn can rest."
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Black Teen Who Strangled 12 Year-Old White Girl, Dumped Body in Garbage, Gets Only 17 Years
http://patdollard.com/2013/08/black-teen-who-strangled-12-year-old-white-girl-dumps-body-in-garbage-gets-only-17-years-in-prison/
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