Dealers’ sentences starkly different for same crimes

Lanzendorfer pleads to get 1-2 years; Dick serving 6.5-40 years

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- Two Blair County residents involved in the same pair of drug sales in September 2019 received significantly different sentences in court for the same crimes.

Caleb Lee Lanzendorfer, 31, Roaring Spring, who pleaded guilty, was sentenced this week to one to two years in the county prison for criminal conspiracy, possession with intent to deliver heroin and methamphetamine and related charges.

Co-defendant Roxie Dick, 35, Williamsburg, who was unsuccessful last year in getting a jury to believe that Lanzendorfer made the sales to a confidential informant without her knowledge, is serving 6.5 to 40 years in prison.

The stark difference in the incarceration periods reflect sentences handed down at different times by different judges as well as the factors the judges considered and their leeway.

President Judge Elizabeth Doyle went into the mitigated range of the state's sentencing guidelines on Tuesday when she imposed Lanzendorfer's sentence on the drug sale crimes.

"I have to change my way of thinking," Lanzendorfer told Doyle. He spoke of dealing with drug and alcohol and mental health issues since he was a kid.

When Doyle asked him about making efforts to address his drug addiction, Lanzendorfer acknowledged a failed prior attempt.

"I tried outpatient and didn't complete the program," he said.

When Doyle imposed Lanzendorfer's sentence, she acknowledged his show of remorse, that he took responsibility for his actions and that his longtime criminal history was associated with his substance abuse.

When Judge Jackie Bernard imposed Dick's sentence in November, she also recognized Dick's longtime history of drug addiction and that Dick was previously sentenced to the county's Drug Court program.

Dick told the judge that Drug Court provided her with coping skills that worked until 2017 when her life fell apart and she resumed drug use.

Also at sentencing, Dick tried again to make the case that the drug sales between Lanzendorfer and the confidential informant occurred outside her presence.

Bernard disagreed and referenced testimony indicating that Dick was inside the vehicle for a Sept. 23, 2019, drug sale in an East Freedom parking lot and that Dick had provided the scale Lanzendorfer used in a Sept. 25, 2019, transaction in an Altoona parking lot.

When Bernard imposed Dick's sentence, she relied on the standard range of the state's sentencing guidelines to assign incarceration periods for each of Dick's convictions, then ordered that all but one of the periods to be served consecutively, adding up to 6.5 years to 40 years.

"The court believes that consecutive sentences are necessary as the defendant is not entitled to a volume discount," Bernard said.

Dick is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Muncy, and she has the option of seeking early release after 5.5 years.

Lanzendorfer, meanwhile, has additional criminal charges that are pending and Doyle said she expects he will remain incarcerated because of them.

They include attempted homicide for a July incident in Frankstown Township where police say Lanzendorfer used his vehicle to knock down a man and run over his legs, causing multiple fractures.

Lanzendorfer is also accused, a month before the July incident, of fleeing the East Freedom Walmart without paying for items, then speeding by up to 13 vehicles during flight, leading to reckless endangerment and related charges.

In November, Hollidays­burg police charged Lanzendorfer with rioting and related offenses in connection with an October fight at the prison.

In addressing Doyle about Lanzendorfer's drug sale cases, defense attorney Richard Corcoran asked for concurrent sentences.

"This is two sales in two days of Mr. Lanzendorfer trying to support his habit," Corcoran said.

Defense attorney John Siford also asked Bernard for leniency and presented family members who spoke on Dick's behalf. Bernard said they were influential in her decision to scale back Dick's sentence that would have otherwise been longer.

Prosecutors in both cases asked both judges for lengthy sentences.

Assistant District Attorney Katelyn Hoover said Dick's criminal history dated back to 2007.

Assistant District Attorney Justin Shickman told Doyle that Lanzendorfer's criminal history started with a retail theft conviction in 2010, followed by convictions for thefts, receiving stolen property, criminal mischief, simple assault, driving under the influence and other crimes.

He offered a recommended sentence with a minimum of nearly five years to a maximum of 9.5 years.

Doyle declined and said she would treat the pair of drug sales -- two days apart -- as a course of conduct and impose concurrent sentences.

Doyle acknowledged that Lanzendorfer wrote a letter, included in a presentence investigation, expressing his interest in a boot camp program. While that option is available to state prison inmates, Corcoran told the judge he didn't think Lanzendorfer would be eligible.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.