Attempted homicide charges against teens dropped as they plead to other felonies

Two teenagers charged as adults in an attempted homicide in Monongahela formally accepted plea offers on other felony counts Wednesday and received identical sentences.
Christopher Matthew Urista, now 17, of Washington, and Jamie Delmar Watkins, now 15, of Donora, agreed to plead guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, for which they are to serve 4 to 8 years in prison.
On charges of aggravated assault, they are to be placed on probation for five years after their release from prison.
Deputy District Attorney Jason Walsh recommended that the youths be placed at the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove, Indiana, Pa., which has a wing for juveniles who were certified as adults for purposes of prosecution.
The youths appeared separately before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman via video from the county jail, where each has been held on $150,000 bond.
The teens were accused of assaulting Stephen Whatley in his Monongahela residence Dec. 7, 2019, entering through an unlocked door. Whatley was beaten with an aluminum baseball bat and home safe, and also robbed of a bag of marijuana and about $100.
According to testimony in a preliminary hearing last winter, Whatley’s girlfriend, Ashlie Burrup, rushed to the kitchen to retrieve a knife and was struck in the arm with the bat when she returned to defend her boyfriend.
He was flown by medical helicopter to a Pittsburgh trauma center because of the extent of his head injuries.
Whatley was so badly injured that his girlfriend thought he was dead.
In court on Wednesday, Gilman, at Walsh’s request, ordered the defendants to pay $26,347 restitution to Whatley and $380 to Burrup. Walsh said after the hearing that neither victim had medical insurance.
The victims did not attend Wednesday, but have been at previous court dates, according to the prosecutor. At the sentencing hearing, the district attorney’s victim’s advocate Marie Christinis was present on their behalf.
Mark G. Adams, Canonsburg attorney who represented Watkins, said Watkins’ mother also participated in discussions with her son about the plea.
“The alleged crimes he pleaded to were horrific,” said Adams, as were some of the photos that would have been presented had the case gone to trial.
Jim Jeffries, who represented Urista, said Wednesday that he and his client had been discussing his options “for quite some time, and he reached his final decision today.”
If they had been convicted of attempted homicide, the youths could have faced a maximum sentence of 20 to 40 years in prison on that charge alone.