Shopping Cart Tosser Pleads Guilty Day Before His 13th Birthday

The walkway between Target and Costco from which the shopping cart was pushed (AP).

After initially saying he was not guilty, one of the tweens who dropped a shopping cart four stories from an East Harlem Target onto Marion Salmon Hedges before Halloween has changed his tune. "Uh, I help throw the shopping cart over it and I knew the people was down there. I knew somebody could have got hurt," the boy, whose name is being withheld because of his age, said in a brief statement to the court yesterday.

The boy who pleaded guilty today turns 13 today and has been described as "the baddest boy in the building" at the Washington Houses. Despite attempts by his lawyer to get him reunited with his parents for his birthday and for Thanksgiving, the court decided he will remain in custody of the Administration for Children's Services. He faces up to 18 months in juvenile detention for second-degree assault charges (and "The sentence could be extended indefinitely until he reaches the age of 18.").

The other boy accused in the shopping cart tossing may also plead to reduced felony assault charges. Hedges, the mother of two, remains in a coma.

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By Garth Johnston in News on November 19, 2011 9:07 AM

Comments [rss]

bobbyjfromtheuk12

Not to lower the tone of the discussion, but this headline is very funny for those readers in the UK.

Blogarithm

Right...would it be someone who 'tosses' into the cart, or who sits in the cart tossing at others?

bobbyjfromtheuk12

It's basically reads as a 13 year old boy jerking off into a cart!

Blogarithm

Right...or that he was in a cart jerking off out of the cart onto other people.

winning1234

Was the boy's statement a written statement that he read to the court? If so, the lawyer should have at least copy edited that shit first. btw, it's "ask" not "ax".

Tony

Cut his throat and toss him in a ditch. Why am I paying for this little assholes room and board and meals?

nate

Because he's a child and not an appropriate subject for your Goetzian violent revenge fantasies?

zombie_cakes

Sick and violent and I could not agree more. Or just chain him inside a shopping cart and drop it from 4 stories up... into a pit of pissed off, coked up, starving badgers.

Kimberley Truelove

Honey badgers.

Red Ryder

Badgers with AIDS.

Jacquie Tellalian

I'll bet my last nickel that this kid will get arrested again long before his 16th birthday.

Gwinny

My thoughts continue to be with this poor woman. Hope she pulls through okay very soon!

stewart_nyc

Because spending the last 12 birthdays and thanksgivings with his family has really been character building

robingee

Seriously. Screw this kid's birthdays and Thanksgivings. It's obviously not teaching him anything valuable to be with his family.

WorksInDUMBO

18 months? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

AaronRed99

That poor woman's recovery will be longer than his sentence. Good grief.

stewart_nyc

This poor woman took care of so many people in her family, not just her children, but also her brain damaged sister and her father with a serious heart condition. Every extended family has the person who is the caregiver, the person who is the glue. There are guys like Sandusky running around free on bail yet the shopping cart hits this lovely woman. Life is not just unfair, it is cruel.