a new twist on mourning...

Ill. mom accused of giving teens beer
A woman whose 15-year-old son was killed in an alcohol-related wreck 18 months ago has been charged with providing beer to minors last week during a party at her house, authorities said Tuesday.

Andrea Sharos, 37, and live-in acquaintance Brent Moist, 39, were arrested late Friday for contributing to the delinquency of minors after sheriff's deputies saw three teens leave Sharos' home near the tiny village of St. Libory, about 35 miles southeast of St. Louis, with beer and drive away.

Deputies stopped the vehicle and found a 30-can case and 12-pack of beer between the occupants' legs, authorities said. The three 19-year-olds — each ticketed for illegally transporting and consuming alcohol — said they had been drinking with other youths at the house with consent of adults there, authorities said.

When confronted by deputies, Sharos and Moist admitted they had been drinking, said Lt. Steve Johnson, chief investigator of the St. Clair County Sheriff's Department. Four other juveniles in the house — boys ages 16-18 — tested positive at the scene for alcohol use and were arrested. Five other juveniles who tested negative for alcohol were released to their parents.

Johnson said deputies had learned of the party from residents and postings on a popular social-networking Web site.

"To me, it's obscene," Johnson said of Andrea Sharos' alleged conduct in light of the one-vehicle crash in 2005 that killed her son, Jonathan Carrillo, and one of his friends.

Carrillo and Drew Lintker, both 15-year-old Freeburg High School students, died in a one-car, rollover wreck early Aug. 9, 2005. Neither was old enough to drive.

At a November 2005 coroner's inquest, a St. Louis County, Mo., medical examiner's investigator testified that alcohol played a role in the death of Carrillo, the car's driver, but did not give his blood-alcohol level. Toxicology tests showed that Lintker's blood-alcohol level was .061 percent, below the state's legal limit of .08 percent.

Carrillo's uncle, George Sharos, later told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the boys had been drinking at Sharos' house while she slept. Andrea Sharos told investigators then that the boys managed to get the beer from a locked refrigerator in her garage, though last week's arrest "certainly sheds a different light on things," Johnson said.

Messages left Tuesday at Sharos' home were not immediately returned.

After Sharos' arrest, her mother told sheriff's investigator Scott Toth her daughter "has been supplying alcohol to minors for some time," according to his written report. Mary Sharos also said "(Mary) did not think anything was wrong with this because the kids do not have anything else to do in St. Libory," Toth's report said.

On Tuesday, Mary Sharos told The Associated Press she never told Toth her daughter gave alcohol to minors or that it was appropriate. "I would never say that. That's a lie," Mary Sharos said, although she acknowledged telling Toth that St. Libory youths had little to do.

She referred further questions to an attorney.

Not long after Andrea Sharos and Moist were freed on $100 bond apiece, Johnson said, Sharos called the sheriff's department to complain that deputies had confiscated liquid "mixers" for her margaritas.

Investigators also said they seized a "large amount of alcohol" and several baggies of marijuana found with related paraphernalia on a bedroom dresser. The exact ownership of that drug remains unclear.

In January, St. Libory President Phyllis Behrman was ticketed for selling alcohol to a minor while Behrman worked at a service station. Behrman is to appear in court March 7.