Woman behind SEPTA bus shooting pleads guilty

The fourth defendant in the brazen shooting of a crowded SEPTA bus last June pleaded guilty Tuesday morning, accepting responsibility for a incident that went viral.

Penny Chapman, 21, in a soft voice, told Common Pleas Judge Willis Berry that she was pleading guilty because she was, in fact, guilty.

The negotiated agreement with the District Attorney's Office calls for Chapman to serve a 5-to-10-year state prison sentence followed by a five-year probationary period.

If she had gone to trial starting Wednesday and been convicted of all the charges, the judge said, she could have been sentenced to 304 years in prison and fined $625,000.

Prosecutors contend that Chapman was at the heart of the trouble that led to the shooting, in which all passengers somehow escaped injury.

After a male passenger accused Chapman of abusing her young son, police and prosecutors said, she used her cell phone to call for backup. In all, seven of Chapman's friends and relatives met the bus when it stopped at Seventh Street and Cecil B. Moore Avenue at 5:50 p.m. on June 18, 2011.

Multiple cameras on the bus captured gun-wielding young men standing outside and firing bullets into the bus.

Co-defendants Karon Patterson and his cousin Raheen Patterson both pleaded guilty last month and received 15-to-30-year prison sentences. Angel Lecourt pleaded guilty previously and is awaiting sentencing. Lawrence Rahyle and Keith Mup Bellamy are scheduled to go on trial Wednesday. Dimetrius Patterson is scheduled to be tried later.

At Tuesday's hearing, Chapman pleaded guilty to one count of attempted murder, 11 counts of aggravated assault, two counts of possession of an instrument of crime, and related crimes.