IMANI JENNINGS - 20 months (2008) - Syracuse NY

A 16-year-old Syracuse boy pleaded guilty to second-degree murder
today in Onondaga County Court in the beating death of last November of
his girlfriend’s 20-month-old child.
Anthony Weakfall Jr., 16, made the plea in exchange for two years
less than the maximum sentence for a juvenile offender, 15 years to
life, according to a court transcript of the plea (click here to read transcript).

Undated photo of Imani Jennings

County
Judge Joseph E. Fahey said he was reluctant to commit to a sentence of
13 years to life for Weakfall because of the “seriousness of the
offense, duration of the offense, the horrendous trauma in terms of
injuries” that were inflicted on Imani Jennings before her death on
Nov. 21, 2008.
Fahey said he was willing to accept the 13 years-to-life plea
agreement, “a sentence only two years less than I could otherwise
impose,” to avoid imposing the trauma of seeing pictures of “horrendous
and horrific” injuries to the child on those associated with the case
and on members of a jury had the case gone to trial.
Weakfall admitted to beating Jennings between Nov. 1 and 21 last
year with “metal rods and tubes, a metal spring, a coaxial cable cord
causing severe injuries, bruises, contusions, lacerations and scarring
over most of her body.”
The teen also admitted that he beat Jennings on Nov. 21 with his
hands, a metal rod and a metal spring, inflicting a brain injury that
impaired her ability to breathe, and then left the child unattended for
several hours before she died of blunt-force trauma injuries at a Fage
Avenue home.
Weakfall was 15 when the beatings occurred.
Syracuse lawyer Eric B. Jeschke represented Weakfall and told Fahey
that he discussed the plea with Weakfall and that Weakfall understood
the sentence and that he was going to take responsibility for his
actions.
Rick Trunfio, who prosecuted the case for the Onondaga County
District Attorney’s Office, said after the hearing that he was
“extremely happy” with the disposition of the case.
“What we got today is a plea as charged,” Trunfio said. “We got a
life sentence. He didn’t get 13 years. He got a life sentence that
makes him eligible for parole in 13 years.”
Weakfall participated in a “brutal and heinous crime against an
innocent baby,” Trunfio said. “The torture this baby suffered is
horrendous.”
Weakfall’s plea was the final disposition the DA’s office received
in the three cases related to the death of Imani Jennings, Trunfio said.
Jennings’ mother, Cherron Patterson, 18, pleaded guilty to a charge
of criminally negligent homicide and was sentenced June 16 to 1Ð to
four years in state prison. She admitted allowing Weakfall to beat the
child, failing to protect her child from those beatings, failing to
obtain medical treatment for the child’s injuries and leaving the child
alone.
Daycare provider Diane Shakir, 48, of 120 Hatch St., was found
guilty Aug. 11 of failing to report the suspected abuse of Jennings, a
misdemeanor. Shakir failed to report bruises and redness she noticed on
the child’s buttocks between Oct. 30 and Nov. 3, 2008, at the day care
program she ran in her home. Sentencing for Shakir has not yet taken
place.
Sentencing for Westfall is set for Nov. 19 in Onondaga County Court.