A public defender for one of the two teenagers charged with fatally shooting Cheyenne Farewell challenged at a court hearing Monday the legality of the suspect's confession to police during questioning.
Niagara County Youth Court Judge Diane L. Vitello sent the case to the grand jury.
Assistant Public Defender Mark D. Grossman said the defendant's mother repeatedly told her son not to answer questions without a lawyer present.
But the mother was out of the room when her son confessed, Grossman said. She left after detectives showed a photo of the body of Farewell, the 20-year-old Medina woman killed in the shooting.
"That was a tactic, an investigative ploy to get the mother away from her son," Grossman said.
Five others were wounded by eight rounds fired through a closed garage door during a Halloween party at 43 S. Niagara St. about 12:15 a.m. Oct. 17.
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Grossman and two other public defenders represent the 17-year-old Lockport teenager, who was arrested last Tuesday.
A co-defendant, a 16-year-old Lockport resident, also was arrested last Tuesday. His attorney, Rodney Giove of the county Conflict Defender's Office, waived a preliminary hearing Monday to allow his client to be held for grand jury action.
"Despite the legal arguments made by the defense in court today, we are comfortable that the proper legal safeguards were followed by the Lockport Police Department when interviewing the juveniles involved in this case," District Attorney Caroline A. Wojtaszek said in a statement late Tuesday.
"The admissibility of the defendant’s statements will be litigated at a later date. We are confident the protocols set forth in the Raise the Age legislation,
particularly those involving parental notification, were followed despite the arguments raised by defense counsel and the questions posed to the witnesses in today’s hearing," Wojtaszek said.
Monday's testimony revealed the 17-year-old was questioned for about seven hours after his arrest. Lockport Detective Travis Mapes stopped the car in which he was a passenger on Lockport-Olcott Road between 2 and 3 p.m. last Tuesday. Detective Heather Glenn said colleagues told her the car was speeding.
Glenn testified she read the 17-year-old and his mother their rights to remain silent and to have an attorney three times, because the mother halted the questioning twice. Two signed waivers of those rights were introduced into evidence.
"The questioning by the other detectives continued after (the mother and son) had a conversation about whether he should speak," Glenn testified. "She was back and forth about whether he should."
"In sum and substance, (the 17-year-old) said he was present. He did have a gun, raised it and fired it toward the door," testified Detective Adam Piedmont, who interviewed the suspect along with Detective Robert Holmes.
Piedmont said the boy gave the nicknames of two people he was allegedly trying to shoot and said Farewell was not a target.
"Did you tell (the defendant) that you believed the shooting of the girl was an accident?" Grossman asked.
"There's a possibility I might have said that, but I'm not 100% sure," Piedmont replied.
Grossman said the mother lacked legal authority to make decisions for her son, because Family Court had terminated her parental rights and named the boy's uncle to be his legal custodian. He said the uncle was not called to Police Headquarters.
Another key conversation occurred among three detectives and the two suspects' mothers in the police garage during a break in the police questioning. But that questioning was not recorded, Grossman said.
Grossman tried several times during the hearing to find out what was said in that conversation.
"We believed that (the 17-year-old) may have committed this, but may have been working with someone else. Someone else may have approved it," Piedmont told him.
Vitello could have held the hearing in a closed courtroom, but she rejected defense arguments to do so under New York's "Raise the Age" law that keeps 16- and 17-year-old defendants out of adult court in most cases.
Vitello allowed reporters to cover the hearing but ordered them not to publish the names of the defendants, their family members or any civilian witnesses.
Grossman and Giove said if the names were published, the defendants' families and the witnesses might be in danger.
"This is a balancing act," Vitello said, "between the state's interest in protecting the adolescent offenders with the legitimate public interest in an open courtroom and presumption courts should always be open to the public."
