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HOLLIDAYSBURG – A Baltimore man on death row for the murder of his estranged girlfriend was given another five to 10 years behind bars for striking his attorney at the end of a hearing 21 months ago.
Andre Staton, 47, entered guilty pleas Tuesday to the aggravated assault and simple assault of his court-appointed attorney, Timothy Burns of Ebensburg.
Burns was representing Staton on May 13, 2013, when Staton, cuffed to a waistbelt, was able to raise the belt enough to get leverage. He then swung his arms, striking Burns around the eyes and forehead.
The stunned attorney went down but quickly got back to a seated position.
Staton, meanwhile, was removed from the courtroom by sheriff’s deputies.
Several aggravated assault charges were filed against Staton, but President Judge Jolene G. Kopriva dismissed three of them in an opinion written just over a year ago.
One of the charges, assault by a life prisoner, carried with it a second life sentence.
Kopriva retained the charge of aggravated assault against Burns as a court-appointed attorney acting on Staton’s behalf.
The inmate also faced a simple assault charge.
Staton is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Greene, and on Tuesday he entered pleas to the two remaining charges through videoconferencing.
Kopriva told Staton he had a right to be brought to Blair County for sentencing, but Staton indicated that removing him from the state system for only a short period of time would cause him problems.
“It disrupts everything,” he said.
He agreed to proceed with the hearing via videoconferencing.
“I’m wrong. I know what I did was wrong. I’m sorry,” Staton said as he told the judge he wanted to enter a plea.
He said he wanted to resolve his assault cases so he could focus on overturning his murder conviction.
Kopriva had several options. She could have given Staton a much longer sentence, or she could have made the sentence run concurrently with his life sentence.
The judge sentenced him to five to 10 years but made the sentence consecutive, adding it on to his murder sentence.
The judge, like Deputy Attorney General Daniel Dye, pointed out that attorneys and anyone else who is part of the court system must be secure in the courtroom.
An attack on someone in the courtroom, “that shakes the very foundation of everything,” the assistant attorney general said.
He argued for a consecutive sentence. The assault on Burns was a “life-changing event,” he argued.
Burns was not present for the sentencing.
The attorney is suing Blair County for not properly securing the courtroom. That lawsuit is now on appeal.
Staton’s attorney, Mark Zearfaus, asked for “consideration” from the court because Staton took responsibility for what he did.
Staton, Zearfaus said, “did that on his own.”
The defendant was sentenced to death for the 2004 slaying of his former girlfriend, Beverly Yohn.
He broke into her Altoona home in February 2004, ignoring a protection-from-abuse order against him.
Staton then stabbed Yohn multiple times before fleeing to Baltimore where he was eventually arrested.
He has maintained that he did not know there was a PFA against him.
He had stabbed another girlfriend in the mid-1990s.
As it now stands, Staton has been sentenced to death, plus 10-20 years.
In 2006, he received consecutive sentences of five to 10 years to the death penalty for burglary, criminal trespass and receiving stolen property associated with the entry into Yohn’s home.
The judge has given the prosecution 30 days to file a statement of restitution on behalf of Burns.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.