City man sentenced for thefts
HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man accused of stealing eight guns from a family member will finish a one- to two-year jail sentence, then spend five years on probation.
Judge Elizabeth Doyle crafted the sentence for Bryce Franzwa, 29, who has been in Blair County Prison for about 10 months since he was charged with multiple thefts and burglary.
Altoona police arrested Franzwa in May after one of his relatives noticed something amiss at his residence and discovered guns missing from a locked gun cabinet.
Altoona police, who filed the charges, said Franzwa gained access to the house by secretly securing a key from a relative’s keychain. Franzwa also knew where the relative kept the key to the locked gun cabinet and entered four times between August 2016 and April 2017, court documents indicate.
“I made a big mistake, a stupid mistake,” Franzwa told Doyle on Tuesday.
Franzwa said he sold the guns for money that he used to buy a car when his kept breaking down. Franzwa also said he was using prescription pain killers at that time — ones prescribed to him and ones he was buying on the street — to address a health condition that was later determined to be misdiagnosed.
Chief Public Defender Russ Montgomery also advised Doyle that Franzwa’s criminal record was minimal, consisting of two misdemeanors and completion of the Accelerated Rehabilitation Disposition program to address a DUI charge.
Assistant District Attorney Nathan Michaux asked the judge to consider a minimum incarceration of three years based on the state’s sentencing guidelines and Franzwa’s plea to four burglary offenses.
Doyle said she viewed the burglaries as “one connected event” and declined to impose more than the one- to two-year jail sentence. But she included a clause in her order requiring Franzwa to have an approved home plan prepared in order to be released after passing his minimum incarceration time.
The judge imposed the probationary time on Franzwa’s theft offenses and advised him of the opportunity it offers.
“This is a chance for you to prove yourself … to address your problems and what led to this,” the judge said.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.
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