Terence Brabham pleaded guilty to third-degree murder in the 2022 killing of Tamarra Deloache in York.

An open plea this close to trial is a conviction on the counts he admitted, and it is not a sentence. Terence Brabham pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child in the killing of Tamarra Deloache, and Judge Amber Kraft accepted those pleas. The first-degree counts, the ones that require a specific intent to kill, were withdrawn less than two weeks before a trial date. Dec. 21 is when the court picks the term. Third-degree murder is the count he now stands on.

The York Daily Record reported that Terence Brabham, 39, pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2026, to third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child in the May 2022 killing of Tamarra Deloache in York. Court documents described it as an open, non-negotiated plea. Counts of first-degree murder and first-degree murder of an unborn child were withdrawn. The plea landed less than two weeks before a trial that had been set for Oct. 26. York County Court of Common Pleas Judge Amber Kraft accepted the pleas, ordered presentence reports, and set sentencing for Dec. 21. The Daily Record also reported that Brabham pleaded guilty the same day to a 2015 felony robbery by threat of immediate serious injury, a case the paper said was filed after police reported that DNA taken during the homicide investigation matched evidence from that robbery. Judge Kraft accepted that plea too and will sentence both cases on Dec. 21. A guilty plea the judge has accepted is a conviction on those counts. The number of years is still ahead.

York City police said officers found Deloache, 32, dead shortly after midnight on May 18, 2022, in an upstairs apartment on the first block of North State Street. The Daily Record reported she was about six months pregnant and that she was stabbed. The paper reported that investigators, after speaking with a witness at the house, were told Brabham was the father of Deloache's older child, that the two had a custody lawsuit, and that charging documents alleged he was upset she was pregnant by another man. Those were the allegations that held the case from the 2022 arrest until this week. They are not the first-degree theory anymore. What Judge Kraft accepted is third-degree murder and third-degree murder of an unborn child.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Brabham was presumed innocent until Judge Kraft accepted his guilty pleas. He has not been sentenced.