Teen to be tried as adult in drug case

October 15, 1997

By MARLO BARNHART

Staff Writer

Already serving a six-month jail sentence for driving the getaway car in the armed robbery of a Boonsboro bank last year, Tyreese Charlee King opted Wednesday to have pending drug charges tried in adult court, rather than juvenile court.

The pregnant 18-year-old Hagerstown girl appeared before Washington County Circuit Judge John H. McDowell without an attorney.

But King said she was sure of what she was doing.

McDowell waived King to the adult court, noting she is now 18, has had previous involvement with juvenile court, and is serving an adult sentence.

"I also note you have a daughter, are pregnant and had been living on your own," McDowell said.

No date has been set yet for prosecution of the charges - possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

On Oct. 2, Judge W. Kennedy Boone suspended all but six months of the five-year prison term he originally handed King.

Boone also ordered King placed on two years' supervised probation on her release, and ordered her to get her GED and pay $825 in court costs within a year after she gets out of jail.

King pleaded guilty in July to being an accessory before and after the fact of armed robbery in connection with the robbery of the Boonsboro branch of the Hagerstown Trust Co. on Sept. 13, 1996. The robbery netted more than $5,000.

When police arrested King the same day, they said $250 of that money was found tucked in her bra.

She was arrested on the drug charges while out on bond for the armed robbery, court records showed.

King testified in federal court several months ago against Asa King, who she said planned and carried out the robbery.

The jury couldn't reach a verdict in that case.

Asa King, who had been on the loose for two years after escaping from Bayside State Prison in New Jersey, was picked up by authorities in the Midwest after the local case was described on the "America's Most Wanted" TV show.

He has since been returned to New Jersey, where he is serving the remainder of a 99-year sentence for murder.

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