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City man guilty in kidnapping

Keller held man hostage over $700 drug debt

Keller

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man has pleaded guilty to kidnapping and related charges in connection with holding a man hostage and assaulting him because of a $700 drug debt.

Justin Keller, 36, currently incarcerated in the Blair County Prison, rendered the pleas Friday in Blair County Court before President Judge Elizabeth Doyle.

Keller was supposed to go on trial in August.

In exchange for the guilty pleas, First Assistant District Attorney Nichole Smith told Doyle that she intends to recommend a sentence of 10 to 20 years’ incarceration.

Keller’s guilty pleas, Smith said, apply to all charges filed by Altoona police in May 2019, except for rape and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse. In addition to kidnapping, they include robbery, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint, stalking and possession of instruments of crime.

Sprankle

Defense attorney Douglas Keating asked Doyle to immediately sentence Keller, but Doyle declined.

Smith said she spoke with the victim about the potential plea. While he may not attend Keller’s sentencing, Smith said the victim should have the option to consider coming.

“This was a serious personal injury,” Smith said.

Doyle also said that if the victim cannot attend the sentencing in person, then maybe he can participate remotely, through phone or video connection.

Altoona police filed kidnapping and related charges in May 2019 against Keller and Tara Sprankle after an investigation into allegations by the victim, who reported being held hostage for about eight hours at Sprankle’s apartment on the 300 block of Seventh Avenue.

The man said he stopped at Sprankle’s apartment to talk with her about the money he owed and when he planned to pay. The man told police that Keller, who was Sprankle’s boyfriend, pushed him to the floor and handcuffed him behind his back.

Afterward, the man reported to police that the pair put him in a chair and taped his legs together around his ankles. He said he was subsequently slapped, shot with a BB gun, had words written on his skin in black marker, was burned with cigarettes and eventually sodomized by Keller. Police also said the victim was treated at UPMC Altoona for significant injuries and underwent a sexual assault examination.

With a search warrant for Sprankle’s apartment, police were able to find two pistol BB guns, two rolls of tape and two strands of tape with hair, along with a folding chair.

Sprankle, whose charges are pending, remains in the Blair County Prison in lieu of $250,000 cash bail. She has a bail revision hearing scheduled for Aug. 3, court documents show.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.

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