Woman makes plea deal in death of man who tried to aid victim
A woman who tearfully insisted she was simply “at the wrong place at the wrong time” reluctantly pleaded guilty Monday to first-degree burglary for being in a room where a man was murdered and to second-degree assault for being in another room where a woman was attacked with a knife.
Abigail M. Meckle, 21, insisted she didn’t commit the crimes, but admitted she could have been convicted of that and more if she had gone to trial. She had been charged with a dozen crimes, including first-degree murder. Her attorney, Terry Ryan, noted she could have been sentenced to 66 years in prison if convicted as charged.
Asked whether she was pleading without coercion, Meckle said she felt she had “no choice” because Deputy Prosecutor Mark Cipolla “is clearly against me.”
“He will never be on your side,” Superior Court Judge Linda Tompkins said. “That’s kind of the way the system is designed.”
After questioning Meckle at length, Tompkins concluded that Meckle didn’t like her choices but wasn’t being coerced. Tompkins accepted Cipolla and Ryan’s recommendation for a minimum-standard sentence of approximately 21/2 years in prison. With prior convictions for third-degree assault and harassment, Meckle’s standard maximum would have been almost 31/2 years.
In addition to the first-degree murder charge, Cipolla agreed to dismiss two additional second-degree assault charges and charges of first-degree kidnapping, first-degree promotion of prostitution, forgery, second-degree theft and two counts of drug possession.
Meckle is the second person to be convicted in a series of events that led to the November 2004 shooting death of James Alan Johnston in an apartment above the Red Lion Barbecue, 128 N. Division St.
According to court documents, Meckle and her pimp, 42-year-old Robert T. “Tiny” Spencer, lured an independent prostitute, Jonna Pacello, to a downtown motel room with a promise of free drugs. Pacello said Spencer and Meckle held her in the room against her will for a couple of days, and both of them assaulted her in an effort to make her accept Spencer as her pimp.
Pacello eventually escaped to Mark Lambert’s apartment above the Red Lion Barbecue. Johnston also was in Lambert’s apartment when Spencer went there and began slapping and punching Pacello. Spencer left when Johnston intervened, but Spencer came back later that day with Meckle and his nephew, 25-year-old Bryan M. “Squirrel” James, according to the documents.
The burglary charge to which she pleaded guilty was for forcing her way into Lambert’s apartment with Spencer.
Spencer again began attacking Pacello, and Johnston again intervened. This time, Spencer struck Johnston in the forehead with a bicycle seat post. Although cut to the bone, Johnston was starting to fight back when police say James shot him to death.
James, who faces trial later this month on a first-degree murder charge, testified at Spencer’s trial that he didn’t see who fired the fatal shot.
Spencer, who was convicted of second-degree murder, faces a standard range of 431/4 to 551/2 years in prison when he is sentenced.