NORWICH – With a ruling by the state court of appeals, murder charges will be filed in Chenango County for the first time in approximately 4 years.
A former Masonville woman who accepted a plea in connection with the 2000 murder of a Norwich man, Edward Pastore Jr., had her deal thrown out by the state supreme court recently on an appeal that argued that the plea was not properly brokered. She will soon be back in Chenango County Court.
Tammie L. Van Deusen, who was 24 when sentenced in 2001, has been serving an 8-year sentence for her August, 2000 admittance to robbery in the first degree. She was one of five defendants convicted in connection to the July 17, 2000 murder that took place at Pastore’s 118 Lewis Road home.
According to a June 30 article in The Ithaca Journal, the plea was rejected because county court officials failed to fully inform Van Deusen of the terms of her plea bargain. Specifically, the court ruled that at the time of her plea Van Deusen was not made aware that she was subject to post-release supervision. Her initial attempt to withdraw her plea was denied by County Court Judge W. Howard Sullivan and she was sentenced on Jan. 22, 2001.