Reyes
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Although she admitted to her role in the 2018 killing of Fred Boote, Louisa Alexandria Reyes contends she was coerced into a plea agreement and was given bad advice by her attorney.
Reyes was 14-years-old when Wilkes-Barre police detectives say she along with Reynaldo Mercado, 37, conspired to kill Boote inside Boote’s South Wilkes-Barre home on Donald Court on Sept. 14, 2018.
Reyes previously lived with her mother in Boote’s home.
Reyes knocked on the front door as she was allowed inside leaving the door partially open for Mercado.
Mercado entered and attacked Boote inside a bedroom as Reyes retrieved a knife from the kitchen Mercado used to stab Boote nearly 50 times.
Reyes then got gasoline Mercado used to ignite Boote’s body.
A Luzerne County jury in November 2020, convicted Mercado of first-degree murder, burglary, robbery, abuse of corpse, theft and arson. He sentenced by President Judge Michael T. Vough to life-in-in prison without parole plus 27-to-55 years in state prison.
Reyes pled guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced by Vough to 40-years to life in prison.
For the second time since being sentenced, Reyes, now 20, filed an appeal with the Pennsylvania Superior Court claiming her attorney, Frank T. McCabe II, permitted her to be interviewed twice by detectives and advised her to reject an earlier plea agreement. The earlier plea offer had Reyes pleading guilty to second-degree murder with a sentence of 25 to 60 years.
Since she was a minor, Reyes maintains her criminal charges should have been decertified and transferred to juvenile court.
Reyes’ second appeal filed last week with the Superior Court is challenging Vough’s recent denial for relief under the state’s Post Conviction Relief Act.
Vough in an 11-page opinion wrote McCabe was not “ineffective” for advising Reyes to reject the initial plea offer as the initial plea agreement would not had been accepted, and McCabe lawfully advised Reyes about being interviewed by detectives.
“Allowing (Reyes) to submit to an interview by police without more, is not ineffective assistance of counsel as long as (Reyes) was advised that participating in the interview is ultimately her decision,” Vough wrote in denying relief for Reyes.