LIFER KEEPS DAUGHTER OUT OF STATE PRISON Ronald Whethers sat in a Greensburg courtroom and wiped the tears from his eyes yesterday as he watched his daughter, Rachel, plead guilty to helping him run an illicit drug ring from his Westmoreland County Prison cell. Moments later, Whethers entered his own pleas: no contest to a third-degree murder charge and guilty to drug and racketeering charges stemming from incidents at the prison and from a Fayette County-based drug operation he once directed. A no-contest plea is the same as a guilty plea for sentencing purposes. The pleas ended a day and a half of intense negotiations between state prosecutors and attorneys for father and daughter. They also ended a long string of prosecutions that resulted from the fatal beating of William Michael Lucas on June 6, 1993. Whethers, already sentenced to life without parole for a federal drug conviction, is the eighth man convicted in the death of Lucas, the 34-year-old Monessen man whose heart and liver were transplanted into then-Gov. Robert P. Casey in a life-saving operation. Prosecutors said Whethers, of McClellandtown, ordered members of his drug gang to beat up Lucas in the mistaken belief that he had stolen some cocaine that belonged to Whethers. Under the plea bargain, Whethers will be sentenced to 15 to 30 years to be served in a federal prison concurrently with his life sentence. Whethers, now 42, was arrested for the Lucas murder in 1995 and avoided going to trial for five years. Except for his court appearance, he was lodged in the county prison, where state agents said he continued to run his drug gang with the help of a cell phone supplied by a guard. Yesterday, however, defense attorney Timothy Dawson said Rachel Whethers' arrest in June changed Ronald Whethers' outlook on life. "He's a compassionate father," Dawson said. "No question about it." The key to the deals made with the state attorney general's office and approved by Common Pleas Judge Richard E. McCormick Jr. was the sentence Rachel Whethers would face. Ronald Whethers also insisted that his daughter's plea be accepted by the court before his and that he be allowed to watch to make sure prosecutors did what they had promised to do. Rachel Whethers pleaded guilty to two drug-related charges and the state dropped all others against the 21-year-old. Her ultimate sentence will be determined by McCormick. In the formal plea bargain, prosecutors said they would not seek any sentence for Rachel Whethers that would require her to spend time in a state prison. That would mean a sentence of two years or less that could be served in the county prison. Prosecutors and defense attorneys refused to say whether Rachel Whethers would cooperate in the ongoing investigation of the county prison, or if that cooperation would affect her sentence. Jerome Tierney, Rachel Whethers' attorney, said he hoped she would not have to serve any prison time. No sentencing dates were set. Deputy Attorney General Scott Robinette said the deal approved yesterday by Ronald Whethers was identical to one that hit a snag over language the day before. "It's appropriate that Ronald Whethers, who ran a drug organization, take legal responsibility for the murder of Michael Lucas," Robinette said. State agents raided the Westmoreland County Prison on June 22 and arrested Whethers, his daughter, corrections Officer Anthony Shawley and four others accused of being part of a scheme to sell cocaine, heroin and marijuana to undercover officers. The focus of the investigation has widened to include other aspects of life at the county lockup, and a number of witnesses have been called to testify in front of a grand jury sitting in Harrisburg.
No member comments available...
|