Murder jail term 18-40 yrs.
A Muddy Creek Township man convicted earlier this year of third degree murder in the 2014 shooting death of his friend will spend 18 to 40 years behind bars, Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy Shaffer ruled Thursday morning.
The sentence handed down to Jeremey Sickenberger, 25, came after a nearly two-hour long sentencing hearing that saw defense attorney Marco Attisano call numerous witnesses, including a doctor that diagnosed Sickenberger as being on the “high functioning” end of the autism spectrum.
Attisano and the doctor, Allen Clark, argued that the diagnosis confirmed years of suspicion by Sickenberger’s mother and merited consideration during sentencing.
Sickenberger’s apparent lack of emotion and remorse regarding the shooting death of Thomas “T.J.” Stockman, 21, of Portersville on April 17, 2014, was hotly-debated during a four-day trial that concluded with a jury finding him guilty of third degree murder. It’s also been the subject of litigation during the run-up to sentencing, with prosecutors arguing that Sickenberger’s conduct merited the harshest sentence guidelines allow, 40 years in prison.
District Attorney Richard Goldinger cited a letter Sickenberger wrote to the court months after he was arrested, arguing that the missive showed an “absolute lack of remorse.”
“According to his letter, none of this was his fault,” Goldinger said.
He called Stockman’s shooting “a senseless homicide that would have never occurred except for the careless and reckless actions of Jeremey Sickenberger.”
Sickenberger himself read from another letter Thursday morning — one he penned some time ago to Stockman’s mother, Natalie. In it, Sickenberger asks forgiveness while acknowledging that it’s not likely to be forthcoming, and says he wishes he could take Stockman’s place: “If I could trade my life for his ... I would in an instant.”
“I don’t blame you if you want to see me rot (in prison),” Sickenberger wrote. “But I want you to know that I never meant to take your son and my best friend away from us.”
As part of a statement to Judge Shaffer, Sickenberger said he took responsibility for his friend’s death, and called his actions “reckless” and irresponsible.
“I know my actions caused his death. For that, I am sorry,” Sickenberger said. “I still feel guilt and pain for what I’ve done.”
Assistant district attorney Richard Bosco, who offered prosecutors’ closing arguments Thursday, refuted the idea that Sickenberger was displaying remorse and taking responsibility for Stockman’s death. He said Sickenberger was treating his conviction like something more akin to manslaughter than the third degree murder charge returned by the jury.
“Mr. Sickenberger has tried to convince the court that what you see isn’t what you get,” he said. “That’s the same argument he tried to make during trial. He wasn’t found to be reckless. He was found to have acted with malice. And he still can’t admit that today.”
It was Natalie Stockman who showed raw emotion before Judge Shaffer. She read a statement describing her son T.J. as a loving and generous person whose life plans were derailed by a callous Sickenberger, who “shot him and left him there dying,” without help, and has since “not shown any remorse for taking T.J.’s life. Not once.”
Police have said that Sickenberger, Stockman and several other people had gathered on the evening of the shooting at Sickenberger’s home on Robbie Way when Sickenberger shot Stockman in the side of his chest with a .22-caliber rifle.
Sickenberger and his defense have claimed the shooting was accidental and happened during horseplay, and that he believed the weapon to be a pellet gun.
Prosecutors have disputed that account, and argued that the Sickenberger’s actions were more than simply reckless. During trial, state police investigators testified that they received conflicting statements about what transpired in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, as well as unusual behavior from Sickenberger himself.
Stockman, in her statement to the court on Thursday, said that the numerous delays in sentencing proceedings, which were initially scheduled for October, have been “a cruel torture for my family.” She said her grief has been sharp and “a constant roller coaster of emotions every single day,” and asked the court for closure.
“There is truly no greater heartache than burying your child,” Stockman said.
