MIAMI - Lionel Tate, the teenager whose life sentence for killing a 6-year-old playmate was overturned this month, will accept a plea bargain allowing him to leave prison perhaps as soon as the end of the month, lawyers said Wednesday.
Henry Hunter, a lawyer for Lionel's mother, said Lionel had decided to take the plea deal and she supported his decision.
Richard Rosenbaum, Lionel Tate's attorney, said the teenager had been awaiting his mother's approval and estimated his client could be released from prison by Jan. 29.
"Lionel Tate is ready to move onto the next stage of his life," Rosenbaum said.
Tate, who was 12 at the time of the killing, was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison without parole - a punishment that set off worldwide criticism over Florida's treatment of juveniles.
Lawyers for Tate, now 16, argued that he was imitating the pro wrestling moves he saw on television and did not mean to kill Tiffany Eunick, a 48-pound girl who was punched, kicked and stomped to death. Tate weighed about 160 pounds at the time.
A state appeals court threw out the conviction and sentence in December, saying Tate's mental competency should have been tested before trial. Lawyers then began working on a plea deal that ended up being identical to one Tate and his mother, Kathleen Grossett-Tate, declined before his 2001 trial.
The deal would let him plead guilty to second-degree murder and serve only the remaining three months of a three-year prison sentence, followed by house arrest and probation. It would include credit for two months time served in the county jail before he was sentenced in 2001, but the agreement would need to be ratified by a judge, Rosenbaum said.
"I am thrilled that Lionel's mother agreed that it's better to be locked in one's home rather than jail when you're still only a child," Rosenbaum said.
Once Tate signs the deal, he would need to be examined by doctors to determine whether he was competent, Rosenbaum said.
Grossett-Tate was expected to visit her son this weekend in a maximum-security juvenile prison before he signed the deal, Rosenbaum said.
The phone at the Broward State Attorney's office rang unanswered after hours Wednesday. Former prosecutor Ken Padowitz, who tried Tate and now represents Tiffany's mother, Deweese Eunick-Paul, in private practice, did not immediately return a call.
Tate's life sentence set off worldwide criticism, and Tate's mother and supporters brought the case to a United Nations human rights meeting in Geneva and Pope John Paul II in Rome.
Although the State Attorney General's Office says it supports the efforts to resolve the case, the office asked the Fourth District Court of Appeal on Monday to reconsider its decision in case Tate rejects the plea offer.
Tate first claimed Tiffany was injured whey they play-wrestled. In March, Tate changed his story and said he accidentally killed Tiffany when he jumped on her as she lay at the bottom of a staircase while his mother was babysitting the girl at her Pembroke Park apartment.
