A three-judge panel of the State Superior Court has ruled that Cambria County Judge Norman Krumenacker abused his discretion by imposing an overly harsh sentence on an Indiana man for violating his probation in a retail theft case.
Krumenacker sentenced 39-year-old John Charles Illingworth last October to 42 to 84 months in prison for failing to comply with the terms of his probation for over five years. The judge found that Illingworth had not kept up regular contact with his probation officer, had not kept his address up to date, and had not kept up his restitution payments for the theft of $11,500 worth of diamond rings from Decker Diamond Jewelers in Ebensburg in November of 2012. Illingworth pled no contest to a single count of retail theft.
When he was sent to prison last fall, Cambria County Assistant Public Defender Mary Schaffer appealed to Superior Court, and in the ruling handed down last Friday, the court panel noted that a co-defendant was making his restitution payments and vacated the sentence against Illingworth, ordering that he be re-sentenced. A hearing on the matter is scheduled next Monday.
Although he was from Indiana at the time of his arrest, Illingworth has been homeless and generally lived in shelters in Westmoreland County, and in a rented home arranged for by the Union Mission in Latrobe in recent years.
