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HOLLIDAYSBURG – Jacob Dormevil is only 21 years old, but he said in a statement Thursday to Blair County Judge Elizabeth Doyle that the last two years of his young life have been “unbearable.”
Dormevil of Altoona saw his brother, Willie Solomon, 22, shot to death by Hugo Baez of New York during a melee Oct. 31, 2013, at Club Choices/NXT at 130 Sixth Ave.
In the aftermath of the shooting, he was arrested after an emotional outburst at UPMC Altoona. The charges included aggravated assault, resisting arrest and criminal mischief.
He was re-arrested last August and has been in the jail since then awaiting disposition of his charges from that tragic night.
Dormevil then testified in the murder trial last December, helping to convict Baez, who was sentenced to 30-60 years for killing Solomon and for gun violations.
While in prison just weeks ago, Dormevil learned that his nephew, Solomon’s young son, Ty’mil Andrew Solomon, 3, had been beaten to death during a domestic fracas in New Jersey, and just two weeks ago a good friend, Kai Lamar Carter, was shot to death during a neighborhood party.
With all that has happened in Dormevil’s life, several people, including Blair County First Assistant District Attorney Jackie Bernard and Assistant District Attorney Pete Weeks, stepped forward Thursday to ask Doyle to spare Dormevil a prison sentence, despite recommendations he go to a state correctional institution for 2-5 years.
Dormevil’s father from Trenton, N.J., Jacob Dormevil Sr., then made his plea to Doyle.
“When Jacob (as a child) went with his mother, I let (him) go. I was mad because he wanted to go. I should never have done that. I deprived him of his birth right. Every child deserves that,” said the elder Dormevil, who has his own business now after experiencing a very tough life.
“What I’m asking is to allow me to give my son his birthright,” he said.
Doyle listened and then said the recommendation for a state prison sentence was “reasonable,” but she said Dormevil has been in prison since last August and he had many “second chances” before the parole and probation department placed him in jail.
But, she said, the Dormevil case was an “absolute tragedy” for everyone involved, she said. “He has the potential to be good.”
“We believe it is in you,” Doyle said to the defendant.
She sentenced him to seven years of supervision, and she accepted a plan presented by his father. Dormevil will work for his dad.
Dormevil’s attorney, Assistant Public defender Julia Burke, called the Dormevil case “somewhat exceptional.”
She does not believe that, in his case, past behavior predicts future behavior.
Burke related how Dormevil called her when he was initially released from prison and told her “I am struggling.”
People, she said, cannot cope with circumstances like this on their own. He was in jail during the grieving process. His life has been “tragedy upon tragedy,” she said.
His probation will be transferred to New Jersey, Doyle said.
The presentation to Doyle was emotional, and Dormevil’s father attempted to put his son’s life in the context of his own rough upbringing in northern New Jersey.
Jacob Dormevil Sr. said he was born of a mother who was drug addicted and who would leave her children for days at a time. His own father was absent from the home, and he ended up in a series of groups homes before being adopted at age 16, the best thing that ever happened to him.
“I grew up so angry,” said Dormevil Sr.
He cried as he told the judge how proud he was to have a child, a boy, but he said because of his own background, he didn’t have the tools to raise Jacob and Willie.
He said he always worked three jobs and worked for the Department of Homeland Security before starting his own businesses.
Sending young Dormevil to prison, his father said, would be a mistake.
He asked that Jacob live with him in New Jersey and work in his business, but that will be only part of his plan. He is proposing his son receive counseling.
“He needs to grieve,” his dad said.
Mirror Staff Writer Phil Ray is at 946-7468.