SANDUSKY -- After previously claiming their innocence, a Perkins Township youth and his mother admitted their involvement in the October 2002 vandalism of a Margaretta Township home.
In hearings yesterday afternoon, Greg Keys, 17, admitted to delinquency by reason of criminal damaging, and his mother, Letesia Jones, 37, pleaded no contest and was found guilty of four counts of contributing to the delinquency of a juvenile. However, their attorneys told Erie County juvenile Judge Robert DeLamatre that the admissions were against the advice of counsel.
''Were you there when that occurred?'' DeLamatre asked.
''Yes, your honor,'' Keys said. ''Your honor, I knocked over some signs, spray-painted a little bit on the sides.''
DeLamatre accepted the admission, but warned Keys that if it was false ''really it would be worse for you.''
Keys, who was a Perkins football player, is the last of four youths to admit to an Oct. 12, 2002, vandalism intended as retaliation for racial slurs that Margaretta players allegedly used in a Perkins-Margaretta football game.
In court, DeLamatre explained to Keys and Jones that by acknowledging their involvement, they gave up certain rights such as having a trial in the case.
In the first hearing yesterday, Jones said waiving her right to trial did not change her mind about the plea. She consented to a finding of guilt without having to discuss the facts of the case in open court.
''This plea is against the advice of counsel,'' said her attorney, Denise Demmitt.
''Ms. Jones, is that in fact correct?'' DeLamatre said.
''It's correct,'' Jones said.
In Keys' hearing, Demmitt and co-counsel Ed Rhode repeated to DeLamatre that the plea was against their advice.
''I just want to put on the record this plea is against the advice of counsel,'' Demmitt said.
Keys, Jones and attorney Robert Kelsey, who was serving as a court-appointed guardian to Keys, said the admission was the right course of action.
Earlier this week during a plea hearing, Keys, an area football standout who has since transferred from Perkins High School to Bellevue, stopped short of saying he was at the scene of the crime and ended the proceedings.
Recounting the incident, Keys yesterday said he and his co-defendants, along with Jones and her fiance, James Arrington, vandalized the home when Margaretta was playing a football game with St. Mary's Central Catholic High School.
The judge said he had concerns about the case and referred to the length of the investigation by the Erie County Sheriff's Office. The charges were filed almost a year after the incident, according to sheriff's records.
Disposition hearings likely will be scheduled in mid-June, when their trials had been scheduled, DeLamatre said. The victims in the case were present in court yesterday, but did not speak during the proceedings.
''What I want you to think about, Greg, is what if anything you are going to take away from this experience in your life,'' DeLamatre told him.
''Greg, you've to much good things going on in your life to let something like this get in the way of it,'' the judge said.
Erie County Assistant Prosecutor Trevor Hayberger said he would recommend making restitution for the sentences of those involved. The same would hold true for Arrington, Jones' fiance, who has been charged, but has not appeared in court because he is serving in the Ohio National Guard, Hayberger said.
Erie County Prosecutor Kevin Baxter said he was satisfied with the truthfulness of the accounts of the damage to the Maple Avenue home, which totaled more than $2,400.
''It's unfortunate that the responsibility couldn't have been taken earlier on, that's the only regret I have,'' Baxter said.
