Courtesy photo. Brian Wonsom, 15, pleaded guilty to murdering his teacher, Hannah Wheeling, at Cheltenham Youth Facility. Wonsom faces 85 years in prison.

Published on: Thursday, January 19, 2012

By Jim Davis

A Laurel teenager was sentenced Friday to 85 years in prison for the murder of a Cheltenham Youth Facility teacher.

Brian Wonsom, 15, pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Hannah Wheeling in Prince George’s County Circuit Court. He will have to serve 40 years before he will be eligible for parole.

Police believe Wonsom used a cinder block to kill Wheeling at Cheltenham Youth Facility in 2010. There was also evidence the 65-year-old had been sexually assaulted.

Cheltenham officials located Wheeling’s body in the snow just outside a cottage on facility grounds. Prince George’s County Police Department homicide detectives and Maryland State Police discovered a bloody sweatshirt under a stairwell. The blood matched Wheeling’s DNA and the name on the inside of the sweatshirt read “Brian Wonsom.”

Wonsom was arrested and sent to the youth facility in 2010 for committing a number of burglaries in his Laurel neighborhood after his mother, who found stolen items in his possession, informed police.

During their homicide investigation, detectives also discovered the teen was a prime suspect in the attempted murder of a woman living at an apartment complex on Muirkirk Road in Laurel.

Prince George’s County State’s Attorney Angela Alsobrook informed the court that the teen entered the woman’s apartment and stabbed the woman multiple times before she screamed and he ran off. Investigators connected Wonsom to the crime through fingerprints found on a knife.

Prosecutors said doctors who examined the teen found him to be sane but wicked.

“Oh yeah, completely without being mentally ill,” said prosecutor Wes Adams. “He exhibited no remorse, childhood onset anti-social personality disorder. That’s not criminally insane, that’s dangerous.”

“It’s a tremendous tragedy,” Alsobrooks said. “And there’s no answer for why a 13-year-old boy is capable, would be capable, of killing and raping in the manner that he did, but we are now satisfied that we have removed the threat from our community. It is sad on so many levels.”

During his trial, the judge asked Wonsom if he had anything to say, but Wonsom declined to say anything.

Neither Wonsom’s nor Wheeling’s family were in court for the sentencing.

Alsobrook said it is still unclear why Wonsom attacked Wheeling.

Wonsom will spend three years in a youth facility and then be transferred to an adult facility when he turns 18 years old. Since there is parole in Maryland, Wonsom will be eligible to apply in his mid-to-late 50s.