RALEIGH -- Allegra Dahlquist, one of four teens accused of taking part in the 2008 overdose and beating death of an Eagle Scout from Apex High School, pleaded guilty Friday to second-degree murder and several conspiracy charges.
Matthew Silliman, 18, was found dead in late November 2008 at a vacant mobile home owned by Dahlquist's parents.
Prosecutors say Dahlquist was among a group of teens who beat Silliman on the head with a hammer, bound his arms and legs with zip ties, stretched duct tape across his mouth and wrapped a bag around his head. His body was found in a sleeping bag, according to a medical examiner's report.
Assistant District Attorney Jason Waller told Judge Paul Ridgeway in a brief court session Friday that Dahlquist had been part of a plot hatched during the month before Silliman was found dead on the property where the teens often gathered.
Dahlquist, who appeared in court dressed in a gray-and-white jail jumpsuit, spoke quietly as a judge asked her about the plea arrangement that she and her lawyer, Joseph B. Cheshire V, worked out with prosecutors. She showed little emotion as Waller outlined some of the details of the case.
Dahlquist had been in a relationship with Silliman, Waller said, without elaborating. She also had a relationship with the lead suspect in the case - Ryan Hare, 19, who pleaded not guilty Friday to first-degree murder and other charges. Waller said Hare started plotting Silliman's death Oct. 31, 2008, after Silliman's brief relationship with Dahlquist.
Aidil Khan and Drew Shaw also are charged with killing Silliman. In previous court hearings, prosecutors and defense attorneys have acknowledged that Khan and Shaw also had been offered plea arrangements similar to the one made with Dahlquist.
Dahlquist was not sentenced Friday. As part of her plea arrangement, she agreed to testify at Hare's trial, which is set tentatively for late September. Once that case is resolved, the prosecutor said, she will be sentenced.
Prosecutors' theory
Waller outlined some of what prosecutors think happened in late November 2008.
On the night of Nov. 25, the teens, in two vehicles, picked up Silliman and took him for a ride.
Dahlquist was driving a Toyota 4Runner as they traversed Wake County roads. While they were in the western part of the county, Waller said, a CD was plugged in that was supposed to signal others to wrap something around Silliman's neck from behind and then to use a Taser stun gun to shock him.
The Taser did not work, according to Waller, and Dahlquist pulled over to the side of the road, and Silliman got out. But because Silliman knew Dahlquist, Waller said, Silliman got back in the vehicle.
He was later taken to the abandoned mobile home owned by Dahlquist's parents.
Silliman was reported missing Nov. 25. According to arrest warrants, deputies think Silliman was killed Nov. 30.
Dahlquist and others had devised a plan, according to Waller, to tell Silliman, who struggled with mental health issues, that a man named Roger was after him. Waller said they also told Silliman they would take him to a train station so he could leave town.
Before his death, Dahlquist had read Silliman tarot cards to distract him, Waller said. She also read him an e-mail message from a female acquaintance of his in Washington, D.C.
On the night Silliman was tied up and suffocated, Waller said, he had been drinking wine mixed with horse tranquilizers.
Reports from the medical examiner show that Silliman died from asphyxiation, though he also had a level of the antidepressant bupropion in his system that was potentially fatal.
