Teenage shooter takes plea deal
Weakland to spend 3.5 to 7 years in prison for shooting along 17th Street
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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- The Altoona teenager who fired a single gunshot toward two rival teenagers at 17th Street and Seventh Avenue will spend 3.5 to seven years in prison, followed by five years' probation.
Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan imposed the negotiated sentence Friday on 19-year-old Preston B. Weakland in connection with the June 12, 2021, daylight shooting that one of the victims told police was gang-related.
Weakland, 17 at the time of the shooting and charged in adult court, pleaded guilty Friday to criminal conspiracy to commit aggravated assault, aggravated assault, carrying a firearm without a license and possession of a firearm by a minor.
In exchange for the pleas, District Attorney Pete Weeks withdrew charges of attempted homicide, aggravated assault and recklessly endangering another person.
Defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey, who on Friday helped the handcuffed and shackled Weakland complete a guilty plea colloquy, asked Weakland in court to confirm his desire to plead guilty instead of going to trial.
"Whose decision was it to enter this plea?" Dickey asked Weakland as the pair stood in front of Sullivan.
"Mine," Weakland replied.
Weakland, who has been incarcerated since June 17, 2021, currently at the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove, was transported to the courthouse for a status conference that turned into the submission of guilty pleas.
"He wants to get this matter behind him," Dickey said.
Weeks told Sullivan that the proposed sentence falls in the standard range of the state's sentencing guidelines. Weeks also asked Sullivan to direct Weakland toward classes and training available to state prison inmates, prompting the judge to agree and tell Weakland that such pursuits will position him to make the best of his life after being released. Weakland nodded his head while listening to the advice.
Weakland is the last of five people to address the criminal charges Altoona police filed in connection with the afternoon confrontation and shooting.
Collin Brothers and Gage Harf were with Weakland when Weakland fired a shot that police said passed within inches of one victim's head, in the direction of Seventh Avenue, Sheetz and Domino's Pizza.
Brothers, who offered guilty pleas in February to criminal conspiracy to engage in aggravated assault and to aggravated assault, was sentenced to two to 10 years' incarceration. Harf, who in June 2022 entered guilty pleas to the same offenses, was sentenced to one to five years' incarceration.
Altoona police also charged William Edward Kern and Alisa Ramcharan for their roles in supplying the handgun that Weakland fired.
Kern, in June 2022, addressed charges associated with the shooting and additional unrelated charges by rendering guilty pleas for a sentence of five to 15 years' incarceration.
Ramcharan was convicted by a jury in October of illegal transfer of a firearm, a third-degree felony and rendering false reports to authorities, a second-degree misdemeanor. In January, Sullivan sentenced Ramcharan to three months of electronic monitoring followed by nearly four year's probation.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.