Court struggles to find defender for 15-year-old accused in fatal crash

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - A teenager charged with a high-speed crash that killed her passenger in Green Bay was back in Brown County court Tuesday.

Online court records indicated an attorney had been appointed for Sienna Pecore, 15. But when she appeared in court for a status hearing, via video conference, she did not have representation, which the court says it’s trying to remedy through the public defender’s office.

Court Commissioner Chad Resar told the girl, “State Public Defender’s Office has made 75 contacts to private Bar attorneys in an effort to locate counsel for you. They have been unable to do so. There’s a limited number of attorneys willing to take cases through the public defender’s office for the current rate of pay provided by the state. Also, given the nature of this case, it’s a Class B felony, and there’s a limited number of attorneys who are qualified to take such a case.”

Pecore won’t have her preliminary hearing until she has a defense attorney. Another status conference was scheduled in two weeks, on Dec. 6, to give more time for finding counsel or a public defender.

Pecore is charged with 1st Degree Reckless Homicide, Hit and Run, and Taking a Vehicle Without the Owner’s Consent (her mother’s car).

She remains in custody on a $100,000 bond. She’s being held at a juvenile facility in Marathon County.

As we’ve reported, police say Pecore was exceeding 100 miles per hour on W. Mason St. -- a crash reconstruction expert calculated her speed between 116.5 MPH and 123.4 MPH -- when she ran a red light and collided with two cars at the intersection of Oneida St. -- tearing up the front of one car and crashing head-on into another. The crash killed Cruz Beltran, 17, a passenger in her car. Witnesses said after the crash, teens got into another vehicle and left, leaving Beltran behind.

Pecore turned herself in to police the next day.

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