DA appealing judge’s ruling in 2021 Evans City shooting case
A county judge said Friday that a Mercer County woman who was found guilty of firing a handgun toward a man in Evans City in 2021 made a “stupid, terrible mistake,” but declined to add time to the seven-day prison sentence he ordered.
The district attorney’s office plans to appeal Common Pleas Court Judge Timothy McCune’s ruling that did not change the prison term he imposed on Brittany L. Young, 39, of Grove City, last week.
Assistant District Attorney Benjamin Simon said the judge’s ruling on a motion to modify Young’s sentence will be appealed to state Superior Court.
Following arguments in a brief hearing, McCune granted a motion presented by Assistant District Attorney John Kulzer III to add a deadly weapon enhancement to his sentencing order, but did not change the sentence he imposed Feb. 2.
In November, a jury found Young guilty of two felony charges of aggravated assault, two misdemeanor charges of simple assault, and misdemeanor charges of recklessly endangering another person and disorderly conduct. The jury found her not guilty of a third felony charge of aggravated assault. A second misdemeanor charge of reckless endangerment was withdrawn.
For the two aggravated assault charges, McCune sentenced Young to concurrently serve seven days to 12 months in the county prison with immediate parole to house arrest with electronic monitoring after serving the seven days. The sentence includes 24 months of probation and 150 hours of community service. No further penalty was imposed for the other charges.
Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police filed the charges after Young fired a gun toward a man while he was arguing with a neighbor over his dog defecating on the neighbor’s property in July 2021. The bullet didn’t strike anybody, and no one was injured.
Kulzer argued Friday that the standard range in sentencing guidelines for the first-degree felony she was charged with has an offense gravity score of 10 and calls for a prison sentence of 22 to 36 months. With the deadly weapon enhancement, the guidelines call for a sentence of 40 to 54 months.
He acknowledged that McCune found mitigating circumstances existed, but asked him to modify the sentence to a minimum of 18 months in prison.
Young’s attorney J.P. Senich Jr. argued that use of a weapon doesn’t always mean a deadly weapon enhancement applies to sentencing.
He said Young has no prior criminal record, and her sentence that requires her to be on electronic monitoring for the rest of the year is not a light sentence.
McCune said sentencing guidelines are advisory only, and he reiterated the mitigating circumstances that he included in the case record. He said he found that Young had no criminal history, that she is not likely to commit another crime and a longer prison term would have a “tremendously negative effect” on her three young children. He said he also found that were was “strong provocation” from the victim.
“She made a stupid, terrible mistake,” McCune said.
