Guilty plea rejected: Judge finds deal for teen who shot, killed friend 'perhaps not sufficient'
WEST PALM BEACH — Eighteen-year-old Diego Pedro Jose tried to plead guilty to manslaughter before Circuit Judge Caroline Shepherd on Thursday morning.
After minutes spent explaining to Pedro Jose the implications of his plea, and after the hearing appeared to end, Shepherd rejected it entirely.
"You took someone's life, and you're going to prison for 10 years," she told him earlier. "In my mind, perhaps not sufficient."
Pedro Jose accidentally shot and killed 16-year-old Esteban Gonzalez in 2021 while playing with a gun in the back of a car Gonzalez was driving down Lake Avenue in Lake Worth Beach. Thursday's proposed plea deal would have sent Pedro Jose, who was 16 at the time of the shooting but was charged as an adult, to prison for 10 years.
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The defense, prosecution and victim's family agreed to the terms of the plea, and Shepherd initially appeared to as well. She told Pedro Jose to be thankful to his defense team for negotiating the decade-long sentence and double-checked with the teen that he'd spoken to his family before agreeing to plead guilty.
He had, he said. Shepherd nodded and called it a sad day for both his and the victim's families.
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Her decision then to reject his plea deal came during a lengthy sidebar not viewable to The Palm Beach Post, which watched the proceeding over its livestream. It is unusual, but not unprecedented, for a judge to reject the terms of a negotiated plea agreement.
In April, Circuit Judge Howard Coates rejected an agreement that would have sent Christopher Garrett Jr. to prison for 10 years for his role in a 2021 high-speed crash that killed four people on the Beeline Highway. He believed the sentence was too lenient, accepting an amended plea agreement two months later that sent Garrett to prison for 15 years.
Shepherd scheduled another hearing for 8:30 a.m. Oct. 31 to discuss the terms of a new plea agreement — one that may hold a lengthier prison sentence for the teen.
The State Attorney's Office and Kristi Thomaston, an attorney representing Pedro Jose, declined Friday to comment on the case.
Hannah Phillips is a journalist covering public safety and criminal justice at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at hphillips@pbpost.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Judge calls 10-year prison term for teen insufficient, rejects plea
