SOUTH KINGSTOWN – A Cumberland woman accused in the July 2005 revenge killing of a 19-year-old Providence woman declined a plea offer after it was made public in court this morning.

The offer from the state Attorney General’s Office, presented before Superior Court Judge Stephen P. Nugent, would have required Tawanna N. Sampson, 30, to plead guilty to second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

The plea offer was presented for both Sampson and co-defendant Shea Cook, 22, of South Kingstown, who has not yet said if he’ll accept the offer.

During the proceeding, a man who was sitting by Sampson’s family stood up in court and said, “Hey, Tawanna, stay strong."

"Yo, just hold off. They don’t have nothing on you,” the man said as court officers escorted him out of the courtroom.

It is unclear whether the man was related to Sampson.

Neither defendant was asked to accept or reject the offer in court today.

However, after leaving court, Sampson declined the offer, her attorney, Joseph L. DeCarporale Jr., said outside the courtroom. The case will now proceed to trial, which is set to begin Jan. 30, he said.

Cook’s lawyer, Kathleen M. Hagerty, declined to comment. He will be back in court on Nov. 21.

The co-defendants in the murder trial of 19-year-old Stacy Ann Brissett would have faced up to 50 years in jail under the plea offer. They would have been eligible for parole after 40 years.

Sampson was arrested a month after the police say Brissett was shot repeatedly on Narragansett Indian land in Charlestown, strangled and then dumped over the Indian Leap waterfall in Connecticut.

Sampson is the sister of Dwayne A. Sampson, who was shot to death in Providence in June 2005. Prosecutors have said that Tawanna Sampson and the other defendants in the case suspected that Brissett had set up her live-in boyfriend, Dwayne Sampson. He was fatally shot with a high-powered rifle outside the couple’s home in Providence’s North End weeks before Brissett was killed.

The plea offer for Tawanna Sampson and Cook reflected downgraded charges.

Sampson will now go to trial on the original charges of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, carrying and discharging a firearm while committing a violent crime, carrying a pistol without a license, and possession of marijuana with intent to deliver.

Cook has also been charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and carrying and discharging a firearm while committing a violent crime.

In court today, once the plea offer was presented, Sampson’s attorney addressed the court, telling the judge his client had asked to be released from the ACI into home confinement. DeCarporale told the judge he explained to his client that wouldn’t be possible, based on the nature of the charges, and he then asked for a January trial.

A date of Nov. 27 was set for when Sampson will officially enter her plea in court.

The shooter, Shonda Northup, admitted her role in Brissett's killing and agreed to testify against Sampson and Cook last May. She pleaded no contest to second-degree murder, conspiracy and two firearms charges in exchange for 60 years in prison, with 45 to serve.

-- With reports from projo.com Kate Bramson