STUART - Just before opening arguments were expected to begin this morning in the trial of one of several teens arrested after an officer-involved shooting, Jose Sebastian Francisco’s attorneys and prosecutors reached a plea agreement that will keep him out of prison.

Francisco, 18, was just 17 in June 2008, when a Martin COunty Sheriff’s deputy pulled over the car he was riding in near the Treasure Coast Square Mall in Jensen Beach.

According to witnesses, at least two men in the car attacked Deputy Jason Howard, causing Howard to shoot and kill 21-year-old Miguel Pablo.

Francisco and Pablo’s brother, Francisco Pablo, were arrested on aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer and resisting arrest charges.

Jury selection had ended Monday and Francisco’s trial was expected to begin this morning, but prosecutors and Francisco’s attorney Jerome Stone told CIrcuit Judge Sherwood Bauer that they had reached a plea agreement.

Under the agreement, prosecutors agreed to drop the aggravated battery charge and a misdemeanor resisting charge. Fancisco pleaded no contest to a single charge of resisting an officer with violence and was sentenced to two years’ probation.

After the plea, Stone said he was happy with the plea agreement, especially considering Francisco could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison had he been convicted on all charges.

Stone said inconsistencies in witness statement would have made the case tough to prove.

“There were a lot of different versions of what happened that day,” Stone said. “Our version of the story has always been that he simply got out of the car and ran away.”

Howard, the deputy attacked was briefly placed on administrative leave after Miguel Pablo’s death. A grand jury later ruled the shooting was justifiable.

Francisco is expected to be released from the Martin County jail today.

Tags: Add new tag, Jensen Beach, mall, probation, shooting plea agreement

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