A 29-year-old Allentown man has pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter charges in the death of three-year-old Elijah Borgen. Jose Abreu faces 18 months to 30 months behind bars for leaving a loaded gun unattended inside an Allentown home on March 28th. A two-year-old child and the three-year-old victim were both alone with the gun when investigators say the three-year-old picked up the gun and accidentally shot himself.
A 49-year-old North Whitehall Township woman has pleaded guilty to charges she strangled a 1-year-old girl who was in her care. State Police say they were called to the Coplay Creek Road home of Brenda Broadwater back on January 26 for a child in cardiac arrest. The caller claimed the child was playing in a stroller when a strap became wrapped around her neck, however an investigation revealed Broadwater shoved a blanket into her foster child's mouth, improperly restrained her in a stroller and left. While the girl survived, she suffered brain injuries. Broadwater faces up to three years in prison when she is sentenced on February 26.
There's an arrest in a weekend murder at a Stroudsburg Wawa. Monroe County DA Mike Mancuso 25-year-old Andrew Quattrochi turned himself in Tuesday morning. "It's an utterly senseless thing that's so hard for people to wrap their heads around and they probably never will," Mancuso said. Prosecutors say Quattrochi shot and killed 17-year-old Garrett Gearhart Saturday night after Gearhart and other friends intervened in a fight between a friend and a group of others. Quattrochi is being held without bail.
Monroe County's new courthouse addition is finally open. The county opened the doors to the $65 million addition yesterday. It's taken four years of work to get the new piece of the courthouse ready for the public. The new addition will be home to some new courtrooms. County Commissioner John Christy says Monroe County has the most court cases for any county in Pennsylvania of its size. He said there was a pressing need for new courtroom space. Eventually, the county says, it hopes to also open some community space in the addition where people can meet.
And just like that, ski season has begun in the Poconos. The first of the area's ski resorts, Jack Frost, opens today. Shawnee Mountain and the Blue Mountain Ski Resort are set to open on Friday. Camelback is looking to open next Saturday, and Ski Big Bear has its opening date set for December 21st.
AAA East Central says gas prices in both the Lehigh Valley and across the commonwealth dropped over the past week. Pennsylvania's average price for a gallon of gas, as of Tuesday, was $3.22, down two cents from the previous week and 33 cents less than one year earlier. In the Lehigh Valley, the average price was $3.11 Tuesday, down one penny from the week before and 35 cents lower than last December 3.
Accu-Weather's Joe Lundberg continues to believe the Thursday morning drive to work might be a bit slippery. "Somewhere in that 5-7, 5-8am window, if there's going to be any trouble, that would be the worst of it in terms of a heavier burst of rain or snow, probably snow, that would cause reduced visibility and maybe some slippery spots," Lundberg says. He says some areas might get a slick coating to an inch of snow before things wrap up Thursday morning.
State veterans are being honored with military themed license plates. The Shapiro administration announced yesterday that six new plates honoring veterans will soon be available. Three of the plates will honor service members who received medals of honors, and the other three plates will recognize women veterans.
Several feet of snow's already on the ground in Erie and there's more to come the rest of this week. For many residents it's been non-stop shoveling since Thanksgiving. "I stayed at my girlfriend's house that first night that the snow came. The next morning I came here and it was up to my knees and probably higher. I just parked on the street and started shoveling. I've been trying to come out every day because if you let it build up it's going to be a lot worse. So, every day I come out and shovel. It takes a little bit of time," one man says.