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ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — A 14-year-old girl accused of plotting with her soldier boyfriend to kill her mother last year called herself "a monster" as she pleaded guilty in exchange for a 35-year-to-life sentence, according to a transcript of the court proceeding.
The transcript of Thursday's hearing also indicates that Jamie Silvonek has agreed to testify at the upcoming trial of Army Spc. Caleb Barnes, The (Allentown) Morning Call (http://bit.ly/1SN00RE) reported.
Silvonek pleaded guilty in Lehigh County to first-degree murder, criminal conspiracy, evidence-tampering and abuse of a corpse in the March 15 death of 54-year-old Cheryl Silvonek.
"I was a monster. There is no sugarcoating it and there is absolutely no sympathy," she said, according to the transcript.
Silvonek said the couple discussed killing her mother for a week and Barnes talked about weapons he planned to use, the transcript said.
"He had proposed that we kill her and we had discussed things such as luring her away, me luring her away," Jamie Silvonek said, according to the transcript. "And he made a comment such as, 'I already have my knives picked out.'"
The hearing was not on any public court schedule and reporters weren't told about it, the newspaper reported. Judge Maria Dantos subsequently allowed a viewing of the transcript; lawyers in the case are subject to a gag order.
Silvonek, who was charged as an adult, was accused of conspiring with Barnes via text to kill her mother in the driveway of her home near Allentown after returning from a concert. Authorities allege that Barnes, 21, stabbed the woman, and he and the teenager then ate at a restaurant and went shopping for gloves, bleach and other cleaning supplies.
Barnes's trial on charges of homicide, abuse of a corpse, tampering with physical evidence and conspiracy is scheduled for April 11.
"I spent months lying about, about what I did. I can't go on with the rest of my life doing that," Jamie Silvonek said, according to the transcript. "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 told the judge, however, that Barnes did not force her to take part in the slaying, according to the transcript.
"I did it myself. No one made me do it," she said. "I wasn't under the influence of anyone, or under any drug, or under anything, but my own selfishness."
She also said she didn't care how much time she served in prison because "there is nothing, there is no punishment on Earth that can, that can ever compare to how I feel about myself."
Authorities said Barnes and Jamie Silvonek met in October 2014, when she was 13, but she told him she was 17. Cheryl Silvonek found out about their relationship in early March 2015 and ordered them to end it, and a day later, the teenager told Barnes she wanted her parents dead, authorities alleged in court documents said.
On March 14, Cheryl Silvonek learned that Barnes, who was based at Fort Meade in Maryland but was off-duty at the time, intended to take her daughter to a concert in Scranton, and she texted her daughter that he would not be allowed at the house. The teenager then texted Barnes, "She threatened to throw me out of the house. I want her gone," authorities said in an affidavit, and she later wrote to him "Just do it," authorities said.
Police found Cheryl Silvonek's body in a shallow grave a few miles from the Silvonek home and the victim's blood-soaked car was found nearby.
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Information from: The Morning Call, http://www.mcall.com
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