Nanticoke City police at West Green and Maple streets when a 14-year-old boy was shot in a drive-by shooting July 21, 2023. Times Leader file photo
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WILKES-BARRE — A 17-year-old boy accused of operating a stolen vehicle in a drive-by shooting when a 14-year-old boy was critically injured in Nanticoke was sentenced to up to 10 years in state prison.
John Carl Pearce IV, of Wyoming Borough, was driving a 2014 Hyundai Elantra when James Alberto Jr., 17, leaned out the window and fired multiple shots, striking the 14-year-old boy in the head and ankle on July 21, 2023, according to court records.
The shooting happened in the area of West Green and Maple streets.
During a review hearing late Friday afternoon due to being minors housed in adult prisons, Pearce pled guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, arson, theft and criminal conspiracy to commit access device fraud.
The plea agreement was presented by Assistant District Attorney Julian Truskowski and reached with Pearce’s attorney, Cheryl Sobeski-Reedy, and accepted by President Judge Michael T. Vough.
Vough sentenced Pearce to five-to-10 years in prison and made him eligible for the youthful offender program at state prison. Pierce was 16-years-old at the time of the shooting.
According to court records filed by the Pennsylvania State Police at Wilkes-Barre, the Hyundai Elantra was reported stolen to the Nanticoke City Police Department on July 19, 2023.
Investigators allege Alberto was the gunman when he leaned out the passenger window of the Hyundai, driven by Pearce, and filed multiple shots, striking the 14-year-old boy.
Investigators believe the 14-year-old boy was targeted in retaliation as Alberto believed he made disrespectful comments about a deceased infant.
After the shooting, the occupants of the Hyundai were recorded on surveillance cameras driving sough on Route 11 where a 2013 Ford F150 pickup truck was stolen from a Salem Township residence, court records say.
Video footage showed the Hyundai and the Ford outside Sheetz in Larksville.
Investigators say the Hyundai was later found burned at Eno and Church streets in Plymouth.
Alberto was arrested by Wilkes-Barre police when he was allegedly stopped driving the stolen Ford on July 26, 2023. Alberto is facing charges of criminal attempt to commit criminal homicide, aggravated assault, reckless endangerment, arson, reckless burning, receiving stolen property and possessing a firearm by a minor.
