A Johnson City woman will be sentenced in August after admitting to trying to hamper the investigation into the death of her 11-year-old son in February.

SHAKIA CRUTE (Photo: Johnson City Police Department)
SHAKIA CRUTE (Photo: Johnson City Police Department)
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30-year-old Shakia Crute has pleaded guilty to obstructing the work of investigators looking into the killing of Jerome Smith February 2 at a Burbank Avenue apartment.

Crute’s boyfriend, 44-year-old Larry Harris of Binghamton, is charged with felony counts of murder and manslaughter.

The woman admitted she gave false statements and misleading information to Johnson City Police when they came to the apartment on the afternoon of February 2nd to investigate a report of an unresponsive child.

The Johnson City fifth-grader was found in the home but his cause of death has not been released.

The child’s mother was arrested five days later and charged with reckless manslaughter. That charge was dropped under the plea deal that could still possibly put her in prison for up to four years.  However, there is no sentence locked into the agreement, so the woman could possibly avoid prison time.  She is no longer being held in jail.

 

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