Youth admits guilt in '09 slaying

SEPT. 8, 2009, was the first day of school and the last time neighborhood rivals Charles Wilson, 17, and Kareem Haynes, 14, would cross paths.

On that afternoon, Wilson, a special-education student at William Penn High School, pedaled a bicycle up to Haynes as he stood with other teens at 29th Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue.

Words were exchanged before Wilson pulled a gun and blasted a fatal hole in Haynes' chest.

Yesterday, after spending two years locked up awaiting trial, and on the day a jury was ready to begin hearing the case, Wilson changed his mind about fighting a first-degree murder rap at trial.

Instead, he agreed to plead guilty to third-degree murder and two weapons offenses. Common Pleas Judge M. Teresa Sarmina then sentenced Wilson to a 23-to-52-year sentence in state prison.

Had Wilson, of Marston Street near Allegheny Avenue, in North Philly, been convicted of first-degree murder, he would have received an automatic life sentence without parole.

Defense attorneys Stephen Gross and Helen Levin declined to comment.

Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega said that a plea agreement had been offered to Wilson in part to spare two teenage girls who witnessed the murder from having to relive it on the witness stand.

"It's a shame that a young boy, only 14 and about to go to high school, was shot and killed," Vega said. "In terms of the plea, the family just wanted resolution, and they didn't want to put the witnesses through a trial."

Haynes, of Brewerytown, was starting his freshman year at Roxborough High School when he was gunned down.