Sentencing will be held for two defendants in Indiana County Court today, including one who will be re-sentenced in a forgery case.
31-year-old Jabarie Peters-Barnett of Cliffside Park, New Jersey pleaded guilty in June to single counts of forgery, access device counterfeiting or altering, and theft for passing phony twenty-dollar bills at two stores in the Southtowne Plaza in White Township last January. He was sentenced by Judge Michael Clark to concurrent terms of two months to a day under two years for each plea, plus two years probation. Last month, he filed a motion to modify his sentence and was denied. He then filed motions to stay the sentence, and to reconsider modifying it, which the judge deemed moot. He appealed to Superior Court, but that appeal has since been stricken, leading to today’s re-sentencing.
Also scheduled for sentencing today is 27-year-old Benjamin Miller of Indiana, who pleaded guilty but mentally ill to aggravated cruelty to animals causing serious injury or death, in September of last year.
There are also a number of Plea Court appearances scheduled today, mostly for theft, retail theft, or drug possession cases. Among the defendants is 26-year-old Michelle Barkley of Derry, who will plead on one case to fifteen counts of possession, one of a controlled substance and fourteen of drug paraphernalia, and in a separate case to possession of a controlled substance and of paraphernalia.
Other Plea Court defendants who are charged in possession cases are Christopher Clark of Latrobe, who is also charged with theft in a separate case; Marquice Mann of Indiana, who’s also charged with criminal trespass and theft; and Jeffrey Swigart of Indiana.
Theft defendants include David Lee of Ernest; Trenton Jones Jr. of Pittsburgh; Jason McHenry of Apollo; and Heather Naomi Smith of Indiana, in two separate cases.
