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HOLLIDAYSBURG -- A Blair County Prison inmate who joined in the Sept. 15, 2022, brutal assault of another inmate was sentenced Thursday to 15 to 30 years' incarceration for his role in the assault and for unrelated drug-trafficking and firearm offenses.
Delano Anthony Brown, 23, apologized in court, where he told Judge Jackie Bernard that he knew he "messed up."
"I'm sorry for everything I caused," the Johnstown man said.
Brown was in the county prison facing drug-trafficking charges when he and three other inmates -- John Allen Jukes, Kyler Luckadoo and Korey Sitton -- entered a prison cell to steal commissary items from an inmate. When a cellmate attempted to intervene, a fight broke out and the intervening cellmate was brutally beaten, leaving him in need of surgery to address jaw and eye injuries.
In court Thursday, District Attorney Pete Weeks and defense attorney Julia Burke advised Bernard that Brown would render guilty pleas to charges in four pending criminal cases for consecutive sentences totaling 15 to 30 years.
The aggregate sentence included five to 10 years' incarceration for aggravated assault and four to eight years' incarceration for conspiracy to commit aggravated assault in the prison beating case. Those sentences will be followed by five to 10 years' incarceration for possession with intent to deliver heroin/fentanyl and one to two years' incarceration for prohibited possession of a firearm.
Brown also entered guilty pleas, for no additional jail time, to assault by prisoner, possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, possession with intent to deliver cocaine, possession with intent to deliver marijuana, flight to avoid apprehension, false identification to law enforcement and related firearm possession offenses.
Upon hearing Brown's remorse, Bernard directed him to write a letter and submit it to the district attorney's office for presentation to the victim who may or may not want to read it.
The victim was not in court on Thursday, but supported the sentence with incarceration, Weeks said.
The judge also directed and encouraged Brown, during his state prison incarceration, to pursue vocational training, cognitive behavioral therapy and other opportunities.
"The way you live your life over the next 15 years will demonstrate your remorse," the judge said.
Burke told Bernard that her client, who has been in jail since Jan. 28, 2022, has matured since she first met him.
"I think he's come a long way," Burke said on Brown's behalf.
He will be credited for time served, which according to Brown, will make him eligible for release when he's 36 years old.
Brown's drug-trafficking charges developed in August 2020 when Altoona police responded to a domestic dispute on the 1800 block of First Avenue where inside an apartment, they found a variety of drugs, $15,000 in cash, a handgun, scales and drug packaging materials. At that time, Brown fled before police arrived.
In January 2022, while investigating the source of a bullet hole in an apartment on South 27th Street, police encountered Brown, who initially gave them a fake name, then later confirmed his identity. Police also charged Brown in an April 2021 incident in which Brown was connected to drugs found behind a game machine inside an Altoona convenience store.
In the inmate beating case, Brown's sentence requires him to share restitution with co-defendants to cover the victim's cost of $1,300 -- $1,200 for dentures and $100 for eyeglasses.
The co-defendants are: Richard Allen Ewing, identified during a May jury trial as the person who directed the commissary theft leading to the assault, now serving a sentence of 20 to 40 years' incarceration; Jukes, identified during the same trial as the person who repeatedly punched the victim inmate, now serving a sentence of 18.5 to 37 years' incarceration; Sitton, who recently rendered guilty pleas to several offenses for nine to 18 months' incarceration followed by 10 years' probation; former corrections officer Eric Dostal, who unlocked the door to the cell where the assault occurred, now serving 10 years' probation; and Kyler Luckadoo, who rendered guilty pleas in November and is now scheduled for sentencing in February.
Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.