kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG An Altoona teenager facing second-degree murder in the 2020 shooting death of a fellow teenager cannot be rehabilitated through any form of treatment available in juvenile court, a Philadelphia psychiatrist testified Friday in Blair County Court.
Dr. John O’Brien II, presented as a rebuttal witness during a hearing to decide if Logan Persing’s criminal charges should remain in adult court, said Persing has never been able to sustain improvements in his behavior.
“The offense itself,” O’Brien said, referring to the fatal shooting of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching, “occurred on a night when Persing had to pretend that he was compliant with his curfew.”
pray@altoonna mirror.com
An Altoona man, who continued to fight drug charges filed against him in 2010 even though he had already completed his prison sentence, has now lost his appeal before the Pennsylvania Superior Court.
Shawn Edward Gibson, who appeared before Blair County Judge Daniel J. Milliron last year concerning his release on bail from the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove, said he was continuing with his appeal before the Superior Court because, “I want to clear my name.”
He maintained that he shouldn’t have been arrested in the first place.
Milliron had already indicated that Gibson was entitled to be resentenced on his charges based on a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, known as the Alleyne case, that found Pennsylvania’s mandatory sentencing laws unconstitutional.
kstephens@altoonamirror.com
HOLLIDAYSBURG Efforts on behalf of an Altoona teenager seeking to have second-degree murder and related charges transferred to juvenile court will resume today in Blair County Court.
Defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey, representing Logan Persing, who was 16 years old on Feb. 25, 2020, when he and two other teenagers allegedly initiated a robbery that led to the shooting death of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching, offered witnesses Thursday in support of moving the charges out of adult court.
President Judge Elizabeth Doyle, who is convening the hearing through video transmissions, will render a decision in the future.
She has already ruled that first-degree murder and related criminal charges against Persing’s co-defendant, Owen Southerland, accused of firing the fatal shot that killed Pfirsching in the alley on the 100 block of Fourth Avenue, will remain in adult court.
Phil Ray
HOLLIDAYSBURG Whether an Altoona teenager will be tried in the fatal shooting of a classmate in the adult or the juvenile court now rests with Blair County President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle.
Doyle completed a second day of hearings on where Damien Green, 16, will face charges of second-degree murder and robbery in connection with the Feb. 25 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Devon Pfirsching, a 10th grader at Altoona Area High School.
On Dec. 28, Doyle heard from a forensic psychologist, Alice A. Applegate of Pittsburgh, who concluded Green was not a principal participant in the robbery and murder of Pfirsching.
WEST CHESTER — A Montgomery County teenager who shot and wounded a classmate during what was supposed to be a fistfight was sentenced Wednesday to state prison after a judge