WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A couple from West Palm Beach initially pleaded guilty to attempting to light their 1-year-old child on fire at a truck stop in western New York.
Jamie Avery, 28, pleaded guilty to attempted assault in the first-degree, but then her attorney filed a motion to withdraw his plea, Seneca County District Attorney Mark Sinkiewicz told WHEC-TV, an NBC affiliate, Tuesday in an email. A hearing has been ordered to determine if there are grounds to withdraw the plea.
His wife, Lisbeth Collado, was scheduled for an evidentiary hearing Monday but after consulting with her attorney, she decided to enter a guilty plea on the same charge.
Avery, a truck driver, was traveling with Collado and their two children, 1 and 4, from the Syracuse area on May 3, 2022, when they stopped at a Love's truck stop in Tyre in the Finger Lakes region.
Seneca County Sheriff's Office deputies were called to a report of several fires inside the building and found two suspects believed to have started or attempted to have started the fires.
The 1-year-old child was found covered in a flammable liquid and was taken to Geneva General Hospital by ambulance.
Deputies found a suspicious device in the men's restroom. The building was evacuated and the bomb squad was called.
Later, a 4-year-old was found at the scene injured and abandoned in the cab of a tractor-trailer.
The child was taken to a hospital with apparent head injuries.
They were later released from the hospital and at the time were placed in the custody of the Seneca County Division of Human Services.