Peabody woman pleads guilty to home invasion; to serve 2 years

SALEM – A Peabody woman who participated in a home invasion where gold jewelry and a laptop were reported stolen to support her addiction will spend two years in jail.Cheryl Messina, 46, formerly of 2 Hingston St., made her plea Tuesday afternoon in Salem Superior Court, confessing to charges of breaking and entering in the daytime with intent to commit a felony and larceny from a building before Judge David A. Lowy.She was sentenced to serve two years in jail and placed on five years of probation at which time she was ordered by Lowy to be evaluated for drug and alcohol counseling and treatment as deemed necessary, consent to random screenings, attend three Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) or Narcotics Anonymous (NA) meetings a week, 50 hours of community service and was ordered not to have any contact with the homeowner involved in the case.The charges arise out of an incident in Peabody on Sept. 24. It was shortly after 2 p.m. when a concerned neighbor called police reporting that he observed two suspicious women exiting a vehicle and putting gloves on their hands before entering his neighbor’s home at 111 Lynnfield St.He said he then saw the two women, later identified as Messina and Linda Michalski, 49, fleeing from the home in a blue Hyundai Sonata.Peabody police officers Al Graglia and Joseph Coup quickly responded to the area and stopped the vehicle in the Lynnfield Street neighborhood.Police said they found jewelry and other stolen items in the car.The witness later identified the two women as the intruders he observed entering the home.Entrance had been gained after tossing a rock through a back window, according to reports.The penalty was less than the five to six years in state prison with probation sought by Assistant District Attorney Jean M. Curran, who pointed out Messina’s long record to Lowy.Curran emphasized that the homeowner, although not present in the courtroom, felt Messina deserved to be incarcerated.Defense lawyer Alice Jayne asked for 18 months in jail while acknowledging her client’s record, but noting that there were no prior burglary incidents, mostly larceny cases. She said Messina was quite under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident and had to be taken to the hospital for treatment.Jayne urged the court to have her client serve her punishment at the Women in Transition facility located in Amesbury, which Lowy agreed to suggest to prison officials within the court documents.The judge credited Messina the 158 days she has spent in jail awaiting trial on the case.The case against Michalski still remains open. She is due back in court on March 29. In the meantime, she remains free on $5,000 cash bail.An Essex County grand jury handed up the indictments against the two women in October.