Plea agreement is back in place for city man

YOUNGSTOWN -- William Aponte's plea agreement is back in place now that he is cooperating with authorities in the search for Deandre Edwards' killer.
Aponte, 43, of Liberty Road, previously pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to improperly discharging a firearm at or into a habitation, while murder and felonious assault charges against him were dropped.
A condition of the deal was that he would identify who killed Edwards, who was found shot in the back last June 29 on Grandview Avenue on the city's East Side.
Aponte also was found a few blocks away.
Martin P. Desmond, an assistant county prosecuting attorney, withdrew a motion Monday to rescind the plea agreement, which he sought last week because Aponte wasn't cooperating, he said. Desmond questioned Aponte twice after a hearing March 13 before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum.
Atty. Ted T. Macejko Jr., representing Aponte, said his client is to be sentenced after the accused has been indicted, arraigned and brought to trial. Judge Krichbaum set Aponte's sentencing in 60 days.
A four-year prison sentence will be recommended for Aponte.
Four East Side men, including a cousin of Edwards', shot at officers and eluded a dragnet for six hours last July. The incident reportedly was to avenge his killing.