Teen Confesses to Carjacking Murder
From Times Staff and Wire Reports
A teenager pleaded guilty to suffocating a schoolteacher, admitting it was his voice on a cassette tape that his victim managed to secretly record during a carjacking. Michael LaSane, 17, faces life in prison without possibility of parole for 30 years for killing Kathleen Weinstein. Describing the March 14, 1996, abduction, LaSane said he spotted Weinstein’s car at a Toms River shopping center and opened the door, pushing her to the passenger’s side. LaSane said he bound her and then left. But he said he returned to kill her because he feared someone would hear her screams.
