Teen wants to withdraw guilty pleas to murder, rape, other felonies
The Associated Press - March 27, 2019 10:00 am
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma teenager wants to withdraw guilty pleas he entered to murder, rape and other felonies following a 2017 string of crimes in Tulsa.
Seventeen-year-old Deonte Green pleaded guilty March 13 to first-degree murder and 19 other counts in a blind plea, meaning it was entered without a sentencing agreement with prosecutors. His trial was scheduled to begin on April 1.
But attorneys for Green filed a motion Monday to withdraw the pleas in part because Green didn’t know what the word “guilty” meant. Green’s attorneys have said he has an intellectual disability but they believed he understood what he was doing.
Green was 16 when he was accused of killing Broken Arrow middle school teacher Shane Anderson and raping an 81-year-old woman in a separate incident.
