Bucks judge tosses murder charge in suicide plot

A Bucks County Court judge has thrown out the murder charge against a Bensalem man accused of killing his mother in a failed suicide pact.

Ruling Tuesday on a defense motion, Judge Albert Cepparulo dropped charges of criminal homicide and causing a catastrophe against Gus Yiambilis, but left intact charges of aiding in a suicide, risking a catastrophe, and recklessly endangering another person.

Attorney William Goldman, who represents Yiambilis and argued that the son showed no malice, said the parties were working on a plea deal.

"Gus loved his mom. The most important person in Gus' life was his mom," Goldman said. "There was no reason for him to take the life of his mother other than their joint decision that they were going to God together."

Yiambilis, 30, had been charged in April with the murder of Karen Yiambilis, 59, after officials say the pair sealed the windows and vents in their home and turned on an electrical generator that flooded the apartment with carbon monoxide. Police who arrived after a neighbor called about the smell found the woman dead and her son lethargic but alive.

Gus Yiambilis was charged the next day.

Suicide pacts are rare, accounting for 0.5 percent of suicides nationwide. According to experts, it is even rarer for charges to be filed against a person who survives.

Goldman had argued that under the state's criminal code, a person couldn't be charged with criminal homicide for causing someone's suicide, unless it was done by force or deception. But Deputy District Attorney Alan J. Garabedian said in court documents that there was enough evidence to bring the case to trial, citing the high level of carbon monoxide in the home and the fact that the son told police he turned on the generator and refilled it when it ran out of gasoline.

In late May, a Bensalem district judge reviewed the charges at a preliminary hearing and agreed to let the case go forward.

On Monday, Cepparulo told those in court that the son had not acted with malice and that the facts showed it was an intended double suicide, not a homicide, Goldman said.

Garabedian did not return requests Wednesday for comment.

Goldman said he hoped that a plea agreement would be reached by Oct. 6, when the trial was scheduled to begin.

Goldman said that, under the remaining charges, Yiambilis could be sentenced to time served. Under the standard range of the state's sentencing guidelines, assisting in a suicide carries a sentence of three to 12 months and risking a catastrophe carries a term of probation to three months, Goldman said. Recklessly endangering another person is a misdemeanor.

He said the son - whose sister, father, and stepmother were in court Monday - "embraces the idea" of outpatient counseling as a term of a plea deal.

Goldman has said the mother and son were both under financial, medical, and emotional strain when they decided to end their lives April 7.

Both were unemployed. He had an anxiety disorder and past brain trauma, and she had fibromyalgia, a disorder associated with widespread pain. With mounting medical debt, they were facing eviction.