The second of the two pre-teen boys who dropped a shopping cart onto a philanthropist in East Harlem has admitted his guilt.
The boys will be sentenced next month to as little as probation for the horrendous October 30 prank outside a shopping mall, which left a 47-year-old Manhattan real estate with serious head injuries.
The victim, Marion Hedges, had been at the mall loading up on Costco bulk candy she’d hoped to give to underprivileged kids on Halloween. Her 13-year-old son watched in horror as the plummeting cart struck her.
Manhattan Family Court Justice Susan Larabee has now told both boys — one 12, the other 13 — that she may decide to keep them in juvenile jail for as long as their 18th birthdays.
“Me and Jiovanni threw a shopping cart off the fourth floor of the mall,” Raymond Hernandez, 12, told the judge today in pleading guilty to a single count of assault in the second degree.
Asked by the judge if he understood that someone could have been seriously injured, he answered in a clear but quiet voice, “Yes.”
“He understands the gravity of this,” Sandeep Kandhari, Hernandez’s lawyer, said after court. “He’s taken responsibility for it. He’s 12 years old.”
Both boys remain held pending their sentencings; Hernandez will be sentenced Dec. 7; his co-defendant, Jiovanni Rosario, will be sentenced Dec. 6.