Teen who pled guilty in plot to kill mother: 'I was a monster'

ALLENTOWN — In words more sophisticated than the average 14-year-old's, Jamie Silvonek told a judge she deserves the 35 years in prison she got for helping her soldier boyfriend kill her mother.

"I was a monster," Silvonek told Lehigh County Judge Maria L. Dantos. "There is no sugarcoating it and there is absolutely no sympathy. There's no mitigating factors. In my opinion, there's absolutely nothing."

Silvonek, of Upper Macungie Township, pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder and other charges stemming from the death of Cheryl Silvonek, 54. The teen was sentenced to 35 years to life in a state prison.

News reporters were not told about the hearing, which was not on any public court schedule, but after a complaint from The Morning Call, Dantos allowed the newspaper Friday to view a transcript of the hearing.

The judge said she did not know why the media wasn't informed about the plea hearing, which took place nearly a full month before Jamie Silvonek's scheduled trial. Lawyers on both sides of the case, citing a gag order, refused to answer questions after the hearing.

The transcript shows Jamie Silvonek sat down with members of the district attorney's office several times over two days the week of Jan. 31 and gave them additional details of her mother's death. She also agreed to testify at the upcoming trial of her 21-year-old boyfriend, Caleb Barnes, who also faces homicide and other charges.

According to the transcript, Silvonek and Barnes discussed killing her mother for a week leading up to the March 15 attack.

"He had proposed that we kill her and we had discussed things such as luring her away, me luring her away," Jamie Silvonek testified, the transcript shows. "And he made a comment such as, 'I already have my knives picked out.' And I was entertaining the conversation."

Jamie Silvonek is the youngest girl ever in Lehigh County charged as an adult with homicide.

Cheryl Silvonek was killed sometime around 1 a.m. in the family's driveway at 1516 Randi Lane. Prosecutors say she was beaten, choked and stabbed in the neck at least five times.

The slaying occurred, police said, as the mother sat in her sport utility vehicle with the couple after driving them to a Breaking Benjamin concert in Scranton, trying to persuade them to end their relationship. After the killing, police say, the couple buried her in a shallow grave, then went to Walmart to buy bleach to clean up the crime scene.

After finding Cheryl Silvonek's body and blood-soaked car later that morning, police arrested Jamie Silvonek and Barnes at her family's home.

Jamie Silvonek was initially charged as a juvenile with helping Barnes cover up the crime, but after investigators recovered deleted text messages from her cellphone, which allegedly showed the pair plotting the killing, she was charged as an adult with homicide.

In court Thursday, Jamie Silvonek's attorney, John Waldron, told the judge his client's decision to plead guilty was "cathartic" for her, the transcript states.

She talked in court at length about her decision, the transcript shows, and told Dantos she's ashamed of what she did.

"I spent months lying about, about what I did. I can't go on with the rest of my life doing that. My mother was … the glue that held everyone in my family together, including me. And I can't look at myself in the mirror knowing that," she said.

Jamie Silvonek went on to tell the judge that Barnes did not force her to take part in the slaying, the transcript shows: "I did it myself. No one made me do it. I wasn't under the influence of anyone, or under any drug, or under anything, but my own selfishness."

She told the judge she earned the lengthy sentence, which was the result of a plea deal.

"I don't care how much time I do, because there is no amount of time and there is no harsh words that can be said about me by any newspaper or any person that can make me feel worse than I do," she said, the transcript states. "There is nothing, there is no punishment on Earth that can, that can ever compare to how I feel about myself."

In addition to first-degree murder, Silvonek pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal conspiracy, abuse of a corpse and tampering with evidence.

In addition to homicide, Barnes is charged with abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and criminal conspiracy. He is being held in the county jail without bail and is scheduled to stand trial April 11.

Jamie Silvonek's father, David Silvonek, also spoke at the hearing, the transcript shows. He called his wife a "wonderful person" who was loved by many people.

"Cheryl was the most unselfish, loving woman in the world. That never should have happened to her," he said. "I woke up on March 15 and lost half of my family."

Jamie Silvonek told Dantos during the hearing that she realizes now that her mother was rightfully concerned about her relationship with Barnes and was only trying to protect her by trying to break it up.

"But I was so selfish at the time. I was so concerned with my own affairs with him that I didn't view her as trying to keep me safe, as her being a mother. I viewed it as her being an obstacle," she said, according to the transcript.

Jamie Silvonek admitted to the judge that she "put the ball in motion" before the killing, the transcript shows.

"She's dead and it's my fault," she said. "I can't bring her back but I can hold onto the hope that I'm going to be able to see her again some day … and one day I'll make her proud, and do something for other people. And she'll look at me and say, as she did when she was alive, 'I'm proud of you. Look how far you've come.' "

As the hearing concluded, the transcript shows, Dantos reminded Silvonek that she'll be almost the same age as her mother when she's eligible for parole.

"This is how it ends. She was murdered in cold blood by her own child. No one should forget that. She should have had a chance to have grandchildren, but you had plans, she was in your way. As you said, she was an obstacle," the judge said.