Butler man attempts to have assault sentence reduced
Zantae Weltner, 24, of Butler, was in Butler County Common Please Court on Thursday afternoon, Feb. 8, attempting to have his 7- to 14-year sentence for assault reduced.
Weltner was sentenced Jan. 11 to two consecutive terms of 42 to 84 months, after pleading guilty to counts of aggravated assault and aggravated indecent assault. The charges stemmed from an April 2022 incident when Weltner physically and sexually assaulted a woman outside a bar in Butler Township.
Weltner’s court-appointed attorney, Jose Hernandez-Cuebas, argued those two counts were similar enough that they could be merged into one count. For his argument, Hernandez-Cuebas cited the 1994 case of Commonwealth vs. Anderson, which set a precedent that counts of aggravated assault can be merged into a count of murder because one cannot commit murder without first committing assault.
Hernandez-Cuebas argued since the aggravated assault and aggravated sexual assault stemmed from the same incident, the two counts were nearly identical, except the latter count also involved “digital penetration” of the woman. Thus, according to Hernandez-Cuebas, the two counts could be merged.
If this argument stands up, it would cut Weltner’s 7- to 14-year sentence in half.
First District Attorney Patricia McLane vehemently disagreed with this position.
“These two counts do not merge,” McLane said. “What he said about the digital penetration is wrong.”
Before the hearing, Weltner also had filed pro se for post-conviction relief. Judge Kelly Streib threw the request out, on the grounds Weltner had already entered into a plea agreement.
Streib said even if she granted the motion to merge the two counts, this would not affect Weltner’s other convictions. At his sentencing hearing, he also received 30 to 60 months for two counts of conspiracy to intimidate, which stemmed from an incident in June 2023 when he allegedly attempted to coerce the woman into not testifying against him in exchange for $700.
Weltner also received a six-month sentence for an order-of-protection violation, which occurred when he attempted to contact the mother of his child while in prison. Those two sentences will run consecutively with his sentence for assault.
“Those two stay no matter what,” Streib said. “There will be no changes to those.”
Toward the end of the hearing, the judge said that, regardless of whether or not Hernandez-Cuebas’ argument succeeded, Weltner most likely would be transported to a prison in Allegheny County in the near future.
