Mother Accused of Helping Her Murder-Suspect Son Flee

The mother of a teen-ager charged with shooting two deaf brothers, killing one of them, during a Granada Hills street confrontation was charged Thursday with helping her son flee to Upstate New York, authorities said.

Phyllis Mary Goodman, 37, of Long Beach, was expected to surrender today in Long Beach Municipal Court for arraignment on a charge of aiding and abetting a felon--her 16-year-old son, Joey Paul Bellinger, who eluded authorities for a month after the Jan. 28 shootings.

Goodman’s husband, Joseph P. Bellinger Sr., 40, is free on $5,000 bail after being arrested March 5 on the same charge. He also is to be arraigned today in the same court.

Joey Bellinger was arrested March 2 after authorities traced him to the home of a family acquaintance in Cassville, N.Y.

He has been charged with killing Cesar Vieira, 30, and wounding his brother, Edward Vieira, 25.

The Vieira brothers, both of Palmdale, were shot during a confrontation in a parking lot.

One of the teen-agers with Bellinger later told police that the suspect said, “I smoked him! I smoked him!” as they sped away in a car after the shootings.

Police would not specify how Goodman allegedly aided her son.

“She along with Mr. Bellinger initially was counseling Joey to not turn himself in and to hide from the police,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Allan Fork, who filed the charge. “She was in contact with a high school friend and arranged for Joey to go back to New York and stay there” without telling the friend the boy was wanted.

Susan Alguire, in whose Cassville home Joey Bellinger was staying at the time of his arrest, told a newspaper there that Goodman had asked her to provide a temporary home for her son without mentioning that he was being sought by police.

A statement to police from a 17-year-old girl who was with Joey Bellinger during the shooting incident also refers to the parents’ involvement in delaying his arrest.

“Joey told his mom and dad about this and Joey said he would turn himself in if anything came down,” the girl was quoted as telling police in a statement, filed with a search warrant affidavit in Van Nuys Municipal Court. “I went to Joey’s house the next day and Joey’s mom and dad convinced us that we need to keep quiet,” the statement continued.

Joey Bellinger, who is being held at Sylmar Juvenile Hall, denied the charges in Juvenile Court.

The boy’s parents could not be reached for comment. They will have attorneys appointed to represent them, said attorney Gerald L. Fogelman, who represents Joey Bellinger.

“Maybe they acted emotionally,” Fogelman said of the parents. “Maybe they made an error in judgment. But I don’t understand felony prosecution.

“They (the family) are hurting enough. There is such a thing as discretion. In my opinion, this is overkill” on the part of prosecutors.

Fogelman, who arranged Goodman’s surrender, noted that the couple’s other child--Joey’s older sister--was raped and murdered three years ago, her body found stuffed into plastic bags and dumped on a Los Angeles hillside. The attorney said the parents have not recovered from that trauma and may have acted to aid their son because he is now their only child.

“Maybe they acted irrationally, but are they criminals? No,” Fogelman said. “They have the son in the lockup, they filed charges on the father and you know what happened to the daughter.

“Why now the mother? This family’s been through enough.”