Killer of friend fighting hard time

Denancour, 18, of West Chester, described "the lonely journey" of her pregnancy and the painful challenge of single parenting.

"I wonder how I will ever explain this to my daughter," she testified.

Miller and Gallen were charged with reckless endangerment and related offenses for the vehicle-shooting spree. Gallen also faces a firearms charge. Later, on March 7, he was charged with resisting arrest and other offenses after he led police on a high-speed chase in Willistown.

In his memorandum, the prosecutor argued that the impact of the killing on the community, coupled with O'Neill's previous citations for underage drinking and marijuana possession, make him unsuitable for less than three years of juvenile supervision.

"Our courts give more supervision for stealing and using another's credit card," Conte wrote.

Of more concern, he wrote, was O'Neill's subsequent behavior at drinking party on St. Patrick's Day at the Penn Valley home of Rick Rueda, a Malvern Prep grad.

During an altercation with Jake Ramsay, 18, then a senior at Downingtown East High, O'Neill broke Ramsay's nose and grabbed a knife, witnesses said.

Conte pointed to an "arrogant and cold-hearted" comment attributed to O'Neill at the party: Both Ramsay and Leaghann Lambert, 18, a recent graduate of Bishop Shanahan High, testified that O'Neill said he had "killed better men for less."

Defense attorney Vincent P. DiFabio wrote that Ramsay saw O'Neill "sitting on a sofa with a knife in his hand, but the knife was never used in any threatening manner."

DiFabio, who suggested Ramsay initiated the fisticuffs, also referenced Lambert, who quoted O'Neill as saying: "I don't want to fight."

In his memorandum, DiFabio cited Mapes, the psychologist who found O'Neill overwrought with pain, guilt and depression from the shooting.

Mapes testified that O'Neill would benefit from substance-abuse treatment in the juvenile system. (He chose to pay a fine rather than seek treatment after his marijuana citation in February 2006.)

"The cases in which the appellate courts have agreed to allow the prosecution of a juvenile in adult court all seem to have a common factor: an intentional, violent felony," DiFabio argued.

In making his decision, the judge will have considerable discretion to weigh factors such as O'Neill's amenability to juvenile-treatment programs, his pre- and post-arrest conduct, and the impact of the offense on the community, said Monica D. Cliatt, a supervising attorney at the Widener University Civil Law Clinic in Harrisburg.

That discretion will make his ruling "very hard to overturn" on appeal, she added.

And although the defense has the burden of proving that O'Neill belongs in the juvenile system, Cliatt said the judge faces a greater burden.

"I don't envy him," Cliatt said. "He has to balance the competing interests of the community with what's best for this kid."