North Side teen pleads guilty in 12-year-old girl's shooting death

A North Side teenager this morning admitted that he peppered a home with bullets and killed 12-year-old Jolesa Barber inside.

Michael Gist, 18, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and aggravated assault and will be sentenced to 30 to 60 years for the Jan. 28, 2008, shooting that killed Barber and injured her mother, Kim Wade, in a house along Brightridge Road in the North Side.

Gist agreed to the plea deal but won't be sentenced until Feb. 4. Gist's accused accomplice, Anthony Wilson, 33, opted for a nonjury trial that began today. Gist's attorney, Michael DeRiso, told Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey A. Manning that his client will not testify in Wilson's trial.

Police said Wilson and Gist, then 15, were part of a gang called the North Charles Street Crips -- named for a nearby road -- that was feuding with some of Barber's teenage brothers. Police said the pair fired at least 40 shots from an AK-47 and a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun into the home of Barber's sister, Rayneisa Wade, then 22. Barber, a sixth-grader at A.J. Rooney Middle School in Brighton Heights, was hit numerous times. Wade was hit in her leg and has since recovered.