Crime & Safety

Guilty Verdicts in Deadly Wilson Home Invasion

Rebecca Johnson and Rogel Suero accused of carrying out robbery that led to Johnson's grandmother's fatal heart attack.

A Wilson woman was convicted Monday guilty of essentially scaring her grandmother to death last year with a deadly home invasion, according to published reports.

Rebecca Johnson, 29, was convicted of second degree murder for planning the robbery that led to the death of Carrie Smith.

The jury also convicted Rogel Suero, 31, who police say carried out the robbery, which netted $35,000. 

Smith, 76, of Wilson, suffered a fatal heart attack last March following the robbery in January at her home on Hillside Avenue.

The Morning Call says Northampton County jurors deliberated for four hours Monday beforeconvicting Rebecca Johnson and Rogel Suero, of Allentown of second degree murder.

Under state law, a second degree murder conviction carries an automatic life prison sentence.

Police have said Johnson, 29, set up the burglary, stealing a key and making sure her cousin, who lived with Smith, was out of the house. 

Suero, 31, and an accomplice -- who has yet to be identified -- allegedly woke Smith up, threatened her, put a pillowcase over her head, and took cash and jewelry from her safe.

She died two months later, and the county coroner ruled her death a homicide since it resulted from the heart attack that resulted from the robbery.

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The Express-Times says Suero testified last week that he had never met Smith and had nothing to do with the robbery, although he couldn't recall where he was that night.


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