BEDFORD — One man charged in a 2020 shooting during a Black Lives Matter march in Schellsburg pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge in exchange for 18 months’ probation, while a second man saw his charges dismissed.

Orsino Von Thurman, 39, was originally charged with one felony count each of possession of firearm prohibited and aggravated assault, two misdemeanor counts each of simple assault and recklessly endangering another person and one summary count each of criminal mischief and defiant trespass.

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee native was offered a sentence of 18 months’ probation in exchange for pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of recklessly endangering another person. However, he decided to enter a plea of no contest, which President Judge Travis Livengood accepted.

The attorney for Terry Myers, the Schellsburg resident who was also facing charges in the incident, said neither Myers nor his father, Elmer Myers, objected to the agreement.

Terry Myers, 53, originally faced more than 40 charges. After a preliminary hearing in June 2021, most of the charges were either withdrawn or dismissed. The remaining seven misdemeanor counts were dropped Wednesday.

Livengood said that Thurman won’t have to pay restitution and that the county will accommodate the fact that he lives out of state.

“I am aware of the nature of this case and how difficult it has been for everyone,” Livengood said.

The charges against Thurman and Terry Myers stemmed from an incident that occurred the night of Aug. 24, 2020, when a crowd of activists, including five children, traveled through Schellsburg on their way to a Black Lives Matter rally in Washington, D.C.

According to state police reports, the group stopped on property owned by Elmer Myers along Route 30. The elder Myers said the group was trespassing and called his son, who then came to the scene and allegedly fired two warning shots from a 12-gauge shotgun. Police accused Thurman of returning fire from a handgun.

Police said Terry Myers allegedly fired a third round toward Thurman, with buckshot striking him in the face and torso. During the investigation, police allegedly recovered a firearm at the scene that contained Thurman’s DNA.

In making his decision on sentencing Thurman and dropping all charges against Myers, Livengood said that the case had been “difficult to navigate and complicated by the initial decisions made by the former district attorney.” He described the initial charges brought against both men as “incomprehensible” and “incompatible” legally speaking.

“What we have here are factually identical self-defense claims against one another,” Livengood said.

When asked for what he thought based on the evidence of the case, District Attorney Dwight Diehl said the stronger self-defense case was in Myers’ favor.

Following the hearing, Diehl said the deal was “a good resolution to the case” and that it gave closure to both the Myers family and Thurman.

“Myers has nothing hanging over his head now,” Diehl said. “Everyone wanted closure.”

Myers’ attorney Matt Zatko said that he and his client believed the court statement that “Mr. Myers clearly had the stronger self-defense claim” validated their position that Myers had done nothing wrong.

“From day one, we have maintained that Myers committed no crime whatsoever and the dismissal of all charges has further vindicated our position,” Zatko said.

He said that both Terry and Elmer were looking forward to “putting this incident behind them.”

Thurman’s attorney Turahn Jenkins agreed, stating they, too, were glad to have the case behind them and to get closure.

“I’m glad it’s done and he is walking out of here a free man with his head held up high,” Jenkins said. “He has no desire to come back to Pennsylvania or Bedford County.”

Jenkins said, though, that the court’s decision that Myers’ claim of self-defense was stronger was a “matter of opinion” and that they decided not to go to trial because trials are “always risky.”

Thurman ultimately decided to plead no contest instead of guilty to the misdemeanor because they “didn’t necessarily agree with all of the details” of the events put forth by Diehl, Jenkins said.

“We had our own version of events,” Jenkins said.

Thurman said that he felt good now that the case was resolved.

“An injustice done anywhere is an injustice done everywhere,” Thurman said. “It shows our court system needs help. Taking probation was my out and I’m out.”

The yearslong case was complicated by Thurman’s repeated failures to appear in court. In 2021, a felony arrest warrant was issued when he failed to appear in Bedford County Court to face the charges against him. He was then released from DeWitt County Jail in Illinois before he could be extradited to Pennsylvania.

Once he was brought to Bedford County, efforts to resolve the case were further stalled when Thurman rejected two plea deals offered by Diehl in March and opted to go to jury trial.

Jury selection for that trial was scheduled to take place Tuesday, with the trial to take place May 18-19 and 22-24, but Thurman did not appear in court. Thurman was then scheduled for plea court again Wednesday.

Diehl said that the plea agreement Thurman accepted Wednesday was one he had previously been offered.

“This was a plea he had turned down before,” Diehl said.