New trial ordered in 2014 Muddy Creek homicide
The state Superior Court on Friday, June 16, ordered a new trial for a Muddy Creek Township man who was convicted of homicide for shooting his friend in 2014.
The appellate court ordered a new trial for Jeremey Daniel Sickenberger, 31, who was convicted by a Butler County Common Pleas Court jury in 2016 of killing Thomas “T.J.” Stockman.
Defense attorney Marco Attisano said the court ruled in favor of his argument that Sickenberger received ineffective assistance of counsel during the trial.
District Attorney Rich Goldinger said he does not agree with the ruling, and his office will file a petition requesting oral arguments before a full panel of Superior Court judges.
“We don’t think it's a good decision,” Goldinger said.
A new trial has not been scheduled.
The state Superior Court on Friday, June 16, ordered a new trial for a Muddy Creek Township man who was convicted of homicide for shooting his friend in 2014.
The appellate court ordered a new trial for Jeremey Daniel Sickenberger, 31, who was convicted by a Butler County Common Pleas Court jury in 2016 of killing Thomas “T.J.” Stockman.
Defense attorney Marco Attisano said the court ruled in favor of his argument that Sickenberger received ineffective assistance of counsel during the trial.
District Attorney Rich Goldinger said he does not agree with the ruling, and his office will file a petition requesting oral arguments before a full panel of Superior Court judges.
“We don’t think it's a good decision,” Goldinger said.
A new trial has not been scheduled.
Stockman died April 17, 2014, after Sickenberger shot him in the side of the chest with a .22-caliber rifle in the living room of Sickenberger's mobile home on Robbie Way. He was sentenced to 18 to 40 years in prison by county Common Pleas Judge William Shaffer, who now is a senior judge.
Friday’s Superior Court ruling came as a result of an appeal of a May 2022 order from Judge Kelley Streib denying Attisano’s petition for post-conviction relief.
Attisano said the appellate court ruled in favor of his argument that public defender Joseph Leonard Smith, who was Sickenberger’s trial attorney, didn’t ask the judge to include “mistake of fact” instructions to the jury to consider during deliberations.
Those instructions should have been provided because Sickenberger testified during the trial that he believed the gun was unloaded, Attisano said. Sickenberger said Stockman was his best friend.
State police said Sickenberger and the victim were “horsing around” while watching a movie that night. Sickenberger retrieved the rifle from his room, came back to the living room, put the barrel of the gun to the side of Stockman's chest and pulled the trigger.
Sickenberger, who denied pulling the trigger, has claimed that the shooting was accidental and he did not know the gun was loaded.
