Not guilty plea in heists

Shaking with silent sobs, Nicole Pearce pleaded not guilty yesterday in Mineola to charges that she participated in two jewelry store robberies in Nassau County and the murder of a Glen Head jeweler.

Pearce's attorney described his 23-year-old client as a young and impressionable girl, caught up against her will in a heroin-induced string of four jewelry store robberies and three murders. He blamed her boyfriend, Christopher DiMeo, 23, and his mother, Maryann Taylor, 40, for the deadly spree.

"As far as I'm concerned," Michael Soshnick of Mineola said, "of the three people indicted here, my client is the least culpable."

But Assistant District Attorney Robert Biancavilla called that statement"comical."

"She's as culpable as Chris DiMeo is," Biancavilla said. "She was with him and cased each jewelry store for him, telling him the store layouts and the location of the employees."

Soshnick did not rule out the possibility that Pearce would cooperate with prosecutors, saying "the defense right now is a work in progress." In court, Soshnick said he's considering whether to request that Pearce's case be tried separately from her co-defendants.

He appeared to be distancing Pearce from DiMeo and Taylor, saying "she knew she was hooked up with the devil and she wanted to escape from him but she was unable to."

Police and prosecutors have said that Pearce helped case J&J Jewels in Glen Head and a jewelry store in Westbury that was robbed Dec. 5. She also waited in a car with Taylor while DiMeo robbed J&J Jewels Dec. 21 and shot store manager Thomas Renison, 48, of Glen Cove, they said.

Between the Nassau robberies and two more in Rockland County and Connecticut, the three stole an estimated $380,000 worth of jewelry to support their drug habits, police have said. On Feb. 2, jewelry store owners Timothy Donnelly, 52, and his wife, Kimberly, 52, were shot to death in Fairfield, Conn. DiMeo and Pearce were arrested Feb. 4 in Atlantic City.

Pearce was charged with second-degree murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. If convicted of the murder alone, she faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison. No charges have been filed against Pearce in Connecticut or Rockland County.

DiMeo was charged earlier this month with first-degree murder and two counts of first-degree robbery. His mother was charged with second-degree murder and one count of first-degree robbery.

Pearce is being held at the Suffolk County jail in Riverhead to prevent contact with Taylor, who is in the Nassau County Jail in East Meadow along with her son.

Soshnick said he is considering a diminished capacity defense for Pearce, who he said "cries almost all the time."

"She's very depressed," he said. "She really wants to make amends for the harm she's done."