Four years for Tacony teen
Winston Charleston, 14, pleaded guilty to killing a Bucks County man while "joyriding" in his mother's car.
As expected, the 14-year-old Tacony boy who last month pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and related charges in the June 30 "joyriding" collision that killed a Bucks County man was sentenced today to four years in a juvenile facility followed by juvenile supervision until he is 21.
Winston Charleston was sentenced by Philadelphia Family Court Judge Kevin M. Dougherty, who chastised the teen for a lack or remorse.
Assistant District Attorney Beth McCaffery said Dougherty followed the terms of the plea agreement reached last month between her office and defense attorney James Lyons.
The plea agreement was outlined Nov. 23 when Charleston's case was removed from the Common Pleas Court homicide calendar and returned to juvenile status.
On June 30, three days after his 14th birthday, Charleston took his mother's car keys from her purse, and drove around his Tacony neighborhood with two teenage cousins and a friend as passengers, police said.
He got on I-95, where he sped by state troopers, exited at Academy Road and, racing near 100 m.p.h., ran a traffic light and drove head-on into a vehicle. That car carried driver Jessica Feldman, 20, of Huntingdon Valley, and her boyfriend, Daniel Fouracre, 22, of Bensalem, who were returning from a night out with friends.
Feldman was hospitalized with arm injuries but Fouracre was pronounced dead at the scene.