A sentence less than life for Wilfredo Cabarello, convicted as teen in brutal beating death

Wilfredo Cabarello was 14 when, taking offense at what he perceived as a homosexual advance, he beat a man to death with a tree branch.

He and his friends already had concluded they might have to kill the man to get the keys to his residence and, therefore, access to his stashes of cash and drugs. That fact was used against him when he was charged as an adult with first-degree murder in 1988.

On Nov. 21, Cabarello, now 43, was re-sentenced in accordance with a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that held automatic life without parole sentences for juveniles were unconstitutional.

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Sentenced in 1990 to spend the rest of his life in a Pennsylvania prison, Cabarello was re-sentenced to a term of 33 years, 10 months and 12 days, which will make him eligible for parole in five years.

If released on parole, he will remain under the supervision of the state for the rest of his life, according to the York County District Attorney's Office.

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With Cabarello's re-sentencing, only three men from York County remain in prison serving life without parole for murders they committed as teens. All three are in the process of getting re-sentencing hearings.

Seven men, including Cabarello, have now been re-sentenced to less than life without parole terms.

Cabarello had made plans with other people to rob Jose Cosme, a 49-year-old gay man who lived alone, of the drugs and cash he reportedly kept in his York home.

Cosme refused to let Cabarello and his friends in when they came to his door, but did agree to accompany them to a local hangout spot south of Route 30 in Springettsbury Township.

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While there, Cosme touched Cabarello's leg. Cabarello's response was to pick up a tree branch and bash Cosme in the head.

Cabarello's friends joined in, kicking and beating the man until pieces of his skull protruded through his scalp.

The group rifled through Cosme's pockets and took his house keys. Back at Cosme's residence, they discovered that someone already had burglarized the home, taking the drugs and the cash.

Cabarello "lamented the fact that they had killed someone for naught," said Dr. Larry Rotenberg, a forensic psychiatrist who interviewed Cabarello for eight hours over two days before the re-sentencing hearing.