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Richard Yanis, the teenager who planned to open fire on "everyone he did not like" at Pottstown High School last month, admitted to one count of attempted murder in the first degree today in Juvenile Court in Audubon.
Earlier this morning, at a 35-minute session before Magisterial District Judge Thomas A. Palladino in Pottstown, an agreement was reached in which prosecution dropped every charge against Yanis except criminal attempt murder. That charge was decertified from adult to juvenile court.
In district court, Therol Johnson Dix, Assistant District Attorney, asked for $1 million cash bail for Yanis because she said he was a "serious threat to himself and people in the community."
Stephen G. Heckman, chief public defender for Montgomery County, asked that Yanis be released on his own recognizance, with no bail. Heckman argued that since Dec. 4, Yanis had been receiving therapeutic treatment at an appropriate mental health facility. Heckman also pointed out that Yanis had no prior contact with the criminal justice system.
Palladino set cash bail at $25,000, and Heckman said it was just a device to keep Yanis in detectives' custody until he could be heard at the youth center.
Yanis will receive psychological and psychiatric evaluation, and will remain in custody at the youth center until sentencing, which is expected within 25 days. Yanis, who will turn 16 next week, could spend up to his 21st birthday in a secure residential treatment center somewhere in the state.
"This is a very serious case," said Kevin R. Steele, first assistant district attorney. "I'm satisfied that by following this course, the public safety has been dealt with."
Heckman portrayed his client as a youngster who had been bullied in school.
"A lot of this he kept inside himself intentionally until he just popped," Heckman said. "He didn't want to burden his parents with this."
Yanis, a freshman at Pottstown, hatched a plot last November to go to school and "shoot everyone he did not like," Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said.
He intended to use three guns and ammunition stolen from his father's gun collection, but the plan derailed Nov. 11 when his father reported the guns stolen, sparking a police investigation.
School officials and Pottstown police learned that a friend of Yanis's had agreed to "hold" the weapons for him and bring them to school when the time was right for the attack, sometime after the New Year.
But the friend, accompanied by his stepmother, dumped the firearms and ammunition into the Manatawny Creek in Pottstown's River Front Park, about 30 feet from shore. police said.
Divers recovered the guns Dec. 4, and that day, police took Yanis into custody and charged him as an adult with criminal attempt to commit first-degree murder. The complaint and detainer were aimed at getting Yanis off the street for public safety, Ferman said.
Yesterday, at an afternoon news conference in Norristown, Ferman identified the stepmother as Julie Ann Macedo, 51, of the 100 block of Micklitz Drive, Pottstown.
Ferman said charges of tampering with evidence, endangering other persons, and making false reports to authorities were lodged yesterday against Macedo at the District Court in Pottstown.
Macedo was expected to surrender Thursday, and an arraignment was set for 8:30 a.m. before Palladino, Ferman said.
As the press conference was being held in Norristown, detectives were in Juvenile Court in Audubon, filing a petition against Yanis' friend, identified in court papers as Andrew Macedo Jr., 16, a sophomore at Pottstown High.
Because of his age, Ferman would not release the petition or comment on the friend's case except to say: "He is not in custody at the present time." The proceeding in Juvenile Court was closed to the public.
Ferman said Julie Macedo knew about the guns and kept the information secret from police for 24 days. In addition, she was belligerent with police, accusing them of unfairly accusing her son of wrongdoing, Ferman said, and she created a false alibi for her son.
The ammunition and one of the guns dumped by the Macedos could be plainly seen from shore, creating a threat to the public, the district attorney said.
"I can only imagine at the horror we could have witnessed if a child had found the guns," Ferman said.
Some students at the high school have said that Yanis, who was small for his age, shunned by girls, and slow to develop social skills, was bullied by classmates, starting in middle school.
The school district last month passed an anti-bullying policy mandated by state educators, although it had a reporting procedure in place for bullying episodes before that.
A school spokesman said no report had been filed saying that Yanis had been bullied.
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