Registered sex offender among five charged in Carlisle Street homicide

Apr. 10—One of the five people charged with torturing and killing a woman inside a Carlisle Street, Wilkes-Barre, house under the premise the victim sexually abused an 8-year-old girl is a registered violent sexual predator.

William Benjamin Wolfe, 54, was convicted by a Luzerne County jury in 1992 on several felony child sex offenses involving a then 4-year-old girl and was sentenced to seven-to-15 years in state prison, according to court records and Times Leader archives.

A probation violation lodged against Wolfe that involved molesting a girl in Larksville in June 2009 resulted in being re-sentenced to an additional two-to-five years in prison, court records say.

In the Larksville molestation case, Wolfe was sentenced in September 2010, to 3 years, four months to seven years in state prison and was deemed a sexually violent predator, required to lifetime registration under the state's Sexual Offender Registration and Notification Act.

Wolfe along with Desiree Kehaun Linnette, 43, her daughter Sarai Kamalani Doyle, 24, Jason P. Race, 43, and Faith L. Beamer, 39, were charged with criminal homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault, abuse of corpse and two counts of criminal conspiracy for the weeks long torture and killing of Nicole Cuevas, 38, in April 2023.

Cuevas' body was found by Wilkes-Barre police detectives buried about 12 inches in the dirt basement of 142 Carlisle St. on Feb. 27. Cuevas was wrapped in a tarp tied with electrical cords and rope, Luzerne County District Attorney Sam Sanguedolce said Tuesday when the criminal homicides charges were announced.

Court records say Cuevas traveled with Linnette from Michigan and stayed at the Carlisle Street house.

Soon after arriving, court records say Linnette turned on Cuevas telling those residing at the house that Cuevas sexually assaulted a girl who also lived there.

Cuevas was kept from leaving, handcuffed and beaten, including Beamer shoving her fingers into her eyes, court records say.

Sanguedolce and court records say Cuevas was repeatedly punched, kicked and stomped and was slashed and stabbed by a knife.

Detectives outlined Cuevas' injuries in court records and who was responsible.

Wolfe is accused, according to court records, of breaking Cuevas' ribs along with Beamer, Linnette, Doyle and Race, strangulating Cuevas resulting in a breakage of the hyoid bone in her neck, causing a tooth to be knocked out, destroying Cuevas' nasal cavity and assisting in burying Cuevas in the basement.

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