Smith
Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — A Wilkes-Barre man pleaded guilty to assaulting a teenager who sustained a stab wound to his abdomen.
Tyquan Jamel Smith, 29, also known as “Whoopty,” was accused by city police of luring the teen to an apartment at Sherman Hills where the youth was confronted about a missing firearm on March 10, 2021, according to court records.
The juvenile told police Smith forced him to strip his clothes and stand in a bathtub, where Smith threatened to kill him with a rifle, court records say.
Another man in the apartment, identified in court records as Tayquan Edgarfran Jones, stabbed the teen in the abdomen during a struggle after Smith left the apartment.
Smith returned to the apartment during the struggle and struck the teen several times with the butt-end of a rifle, court records say.
The juvenile didn’t realize he sustained a stab wound until he left the apartment and collapsed when he made it back to his apartment.
In Luzerne County Court on Monday, Smith pled guilty to aggravated assault while prosecutors withdrew charges of unlawful restraint, terroristic threats, simple assault, reckless endangerment and criminal conspiracy.
In an unrelated case, Smith pled guilty to unauthorized use of a vehicle and driving without a license related to taking a 2008 Chevrolet Impala without permission from the car’s owner on Feb. 11, 2021, court records say.
Smith, who also had an address in Brooklyn, N.Y., fled the area after assaulting the teen. He was captured by the U.S. Marshals Fugitive Task Force at a home in Hagerstown, Md, on Aug. 27.
Judge David W. Lupas, who accepted the plea agreements, will sentence Smith July 12.
Jones, 36, of Sherman Hills, also known as “Geetz,” pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and unlawful restraint on Dec. 30. He is scheduled to be sentenced June 2.