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His chances blown, Tate faces return to prison

Once sentenced to life for murdering a child, he got out after an appeal and plea deal. After admitting to a robbery, he'll likely get 10 to 30 years.

FORT LAUDERDALE - Lionel Tate, once the youngest person in modern U.S. history sentenced to life in prison, will likely return there for robbing a pizza delivery man.

However, under a plea deal reached Wednesday, the 19-year-old Tate, who at age 12 killed a 6-year-old playmate, was spared a potential new life sentence. He faces 10 to 30 years behind bars for the May 23 armed robbery and for violating probation.

"Yes, sir," Tate said when Broward Circuit Judge Joel T. Lazarus asked if he were pleading guilty. Lazarus set sentencing for April 3.

Tate previously rejected a similar plea offer from prosecutors, opting in December to write a letter to Lazarus claiming he was hearing voices, was suicidal and was feuding with his lawyers. After he was judged mentally competent, his new lawyer, Ellis Rubin, said there was little choice but to accept the plea.

"The proof was overwhelming," Rubin said after the hearing. "This was the only professional and ethical thing to do."

Other charges were dropped except for a misdemeanor stemming from a jail window Tate broke, to which he was sentenced to time served.

Prosecutor Chuck Morton said Tate accepted the plea deal because "he had an opportunity to avoid spending the rest of his life in jail." Morton said the family of the girl Tate killed in 1999 agreed to the plea bargain.

Tate's mother, Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Kathleen Grossett-Tate, said she was "hopeful" that Lazarus would impose the minimum 10-year sentence. She said her son was optimistic about his future when he is finally released.

"He's as okay as he can be," she said. "It's very emotional."

Tate, who appeared in court in a black and white striped jail uniform, said little in the brief hearing except to answer the judge's questions. He will continue to be held without bail.

Six-year-old Tiffany Eunick was being babysat at Tate's mother's home when he beat and stomped her to death nearly seven years ago. The boy's lawyers initially claimed that the girl, who suffered skull fractures and a lacerated liver, was killed accidentally as Tate imitated pro wrestling moves he had seen on television.

He was tried as an adult, convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in 2001. But in 2004, an appeals court tossed out the conviction and sentence after ruling that it wasn't clear Tate understood what was happening to him.

Tate then pleaded guilty to second-degree murder as part of a deal with prosecutors and was sentenced to 10 years' probation.

Lazarus added five more years to the probation after Tate was arrested in September 2004 for carrying a knife. The judge warned Tate that he had "zero tolerance" for future violations.

Last May 23, Tate called Domino's Pizza from a friend's apartment and ordered four pizzas. A friend told police that Tate, armed with a revolver, confronted the delivery man when he arrived with the order. The delivery man, who dropped the pizzas and ran, later identified Tate as the perpetrator, and Tate's fingerprints were found on the pizza boxes, police said. There were also text messages on Tate's cell phone implicating him.

He was also suspected in the theft of weapons from his mother.

[Last modified March 2, 2006, 01:32:18]