ALLENTOWN, Pennsylvania. (AP) — A woman convicted as a teenager of killing her mother almost eight years ago in eastern Pennsylvania has lost her bid for a new trial.
Jamie Silvonek, who turns 22 next month, was 14 when he was murdered in March 2015. She was sentenced to 35 years to life after pleading guilty in Lehigh County to first-degree murder and other charges.
A state Supreme Court bench on Thursday upheld the lower court’s refusal to dismiss her guilty plea on the grounds that her attorney was ineffective and the plea was not informed and voluntary.
The Philadelphia Juvenile Law Center, which represented her, vowed to appeal. “We plan to seek a review in the (Pennsylvania) Supreme Court,” spokeswoman Cathy Otto told The (Allentown) Morning Call in an email.
Silvonek testified that she planned the murder of 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek in the town of Upper Makungi, and in the texts encouraged Caleb Barnes to carry it out. Barnes of El Paso, Texas, a Fort Meade, Maryland soldier, was found guilty of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole plus 22 to 44 years.
Authorities said Barnes stabbed the victim in her car in the driveway after Barnes, Cheryl Silvonek and Jamie Silvonek returned home from a concert. Authorities said the defendants then buried the victim’s body and loaded her car into a pond in the town of South Whitehall. They were arrested a few hours after the murder.
Prosecutors said the woman threatened to report 21-year-old Barnes to police for having sex with her underage daughter. The jury rejected Barnes’ argument at trial that the girl killed her mother and he only helped dispose of the body later because she said she was pregnant.
Silvonek had previously lost an appeal to have her case returned to juvenile court on the grounds that she had mental health issues. Her previous lawyer defended his interests, saying that he called three expert witnesses who demanded that she be tried as a minor, but on one occasion the judge ruled against that his options were limited.
