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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- An Altoona man will serve eight to 20 years for several drug-trafficking offenses, including drug delivery resulting in the Nov. 17, 2019, death of 42-year-old Michael Jovan Bryant of Altoona.
Robert Daniel Patterson, 46, who pleaded no contest to the offenses last week, stood for sentencing on Thursday before Blair County Judge Jackie Bernard.
Upon learning that his sentencing order wouldn't name a specific state correctional institution where he would be housed, Patterson began to hesitate and appeared to be on the verge of launching a protest and asking to withdraw his pleas.
Bernard -- who told Patterson that the state Department of Corrections controls where it houses inmates -- blasted Patterson for the self-centered concern he raised shortly after Bryant's family members offered emotional statements addressing the loss of their loved one.
Betty Jean Beichler of Altoona, who shares a son with Bryant, spoke of the heartache she witnessed in her son burying a man he loved.
"I watched my child carry his father to his final resting place," Beichler said. "That's one of the hardest things I've had to do as a mother."
Yvette Lane, who became emotional while participating in the sentencing hearing by video, said Bryant's family and friends loved him. She asked Bernard to impose the maximum penalty.
"Nothing will bring Mike back to us ... but levying the maximum penalty could spare another family from the grief and loss we've experienced," Lane said.
Bernard pointed out to Patterson that when he was given a chance to speak in court, the first thing he mentioned was his future housing location.
Patterson said he accepted the plea because he thought he was going to SCI Laurel Highlands.
When Patterson asked Bernard to name SCI Laurel Highlands in his sentencing order, Bernard replied: "The DOC won't honor it."
District Attorney Pete Weeks and defense attorney Timothy Burns assured Bernard that no promises were made to Patterson about where he would be housed as a state inmate.
Both acknowledged, however, that SCI Laurel Highlands was referenced during plea negotiations because Patterson has health issues and the state prison system houses inmates with health issues at that location.
When Bernard asked the hesitating Patterson if he had anything to say in response to the family's remarks, Patterson said he did, but he thought he was supposed to address the plea first.
He then unfolded a paper with remarks he said he wrote in the last couple of days. In those remarks, Patterson apologized and spoke of introducing heroin to Bryant -- his best friend for 28 years -- and Bryant's girlfriend, Nichole Keller.
"It was my habit that influenced both of them," Patterson said.
Patterson also said in court that he feels responsible for Bryant's death.
Bryant died in his Fairview Hills apartment where Keller found him unconscious and summoned Patterson who administered two doses of Narcan in an unsuccessful attempt to revive him.
Weeks told Bernard this case drives home the argument that drug offenses are not victimless crimes.
"We have lost Mr. Bryant," Weeks said. "And families on both sides are suffering from the sale and use of illegal drugs."
Patterson's no-contest pleas addressed all pending drug-related charges in four criminal cases. They included ones filed after an August 2020 traffic stop in Altoona where police seized 234 wax packets of heroin and charges filed after Patterson was accused of selling heroin to a confidential informant. Sentences for those offenses are to be served at the same time as Patterson's sentence of eight to 20 years.
Bernard praised Weeks for assessing the strength of the case, which factored into the minimum sentence of eight years, which falls in the mitigated range of the state's sentencing guidelines.
"The eight- to 20-year sentence is not a sentence the commonwealth considered lightly," Weeks said. "But it punishes Mr. Patterson appropriately and includes a conviction on the drug delivery resulting in death offense."
Bernard also offered condolences in court to Bryant's family and acknowledged to them that Weeks' effort resulted in a conviction, thereby removing the uncertainty that goes with a jury trial.
"This sentencing is a way for the criminal case to be closed, but there's still a lot of healing that needs to occur," Bernard said.
The judge also included a clause in the sentencing order, recommending that Patterson, in addition to being evaluated for mental health and drug and alcohol treatment, undergo an assessment of his medical and physical needs that the DOC can use in deciding where he's housed.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.