HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man’s incarceration time for drug-trafficking and firearm offenses has been reduced to 13.5 to 30 years — from a sentence of 18 to 39 years — through a negotiated plea addressing an error that factored into his guilty pleas leading to the longer sentence.

Judge Jackie Bernard recently imposed the new sentence on Ryan Michael Bare as a follow-up to a ruling she made in June, which permitted him to withdraw guilty pleas rendered in September 2020. The judge found that based on her review, Bare rendered the guilty pleas based on incorrect sentencing guidelines reviewed with him.

Bernard imposed Bare’s latest sentence based on a negotiated plea, as presented Jan. 21 in county court by District Attorney Pete Weeks and defense attorney Kristen Anastasi.

Weeks, who asked Bernard in September 2021 to impose a sentence of 20- to 40-years’ incarceration, said he wasn’t happy about presenting a proposed sentence of 13.5 to 30 years. His earlier recommendation was made based on Bare’s drug-trafficking history, which Weeks described as significant.

“Nobody is happy about this,” Weeks said after the sentencing hearing concluded. “But it’s what we’re willing to live with instead of going to trial, which in this case would be two separate trials because his case involves firearm charges.”

Weeks also said he agreed to the proposed plea “because the courts are pushing us to come to resolutions on outstanding cases.”

After Bare’s sentencing hearing concluded, defense attorney Kristen Anastasi said she was satisfied with the outcome.

In a post-trial motion, Anastasi asked Bernard to recognize that Bare had pleaded guilty in September 2020 after reviewing inaccurate sentencing guidelines.

The judge, in reviewing the case, recognized that Bare’s defense attorney at that time, Doug Keating, got the sentencing guidelines from the DA’s office but didn’t verify their accuracy for use at that time.

While the DA’s office went on record against allowing Bare to withdraw his guilty pleas, Bernard concluded that Bare should be allowed to withdraw the pleas, so he could again consider his options. That led to the negotiated plea of 13.5 to 30 years.

“I appreciate the judge’s thoughtful consideration in granting the defense motion and vacating the original sentence,” the defense attorney said after the sentencing hearing. “It allows my client an opportunity to return to his family sooner.”

Bare, currently an inmate at the State Correctional Institution at Forest, will be credited for the days he was incarcerated after his March 13, 2019, arrest. While Bare subsequently posted bail and was released, he failed to show for his jury trial in September 2020 that began without him, generating an arrest warrant. After turning himself in, he entered guilty pleas, which halted his trial.

Bare’s latest sentence recognizes that his sentence will be concurrent to a sentence of nine to 18 years handed down in January 2021, when he entered guilty pleas to offenses in connection with smuggling drugs, tobacco and drug paraphernalia into the county prison.

The 13.5- to 30-year sentence addresses Bare’s sales of illegal drugs to confidential informants and a March 2019 search of his residence, then on the 100 block of Third Avenue, where police found additional drugs, packaging materials, cash and a gun.

In handing down the latest sentence, which addressed charges in three criminal cases, Bernard sentenced Bare to five- to 10-years’ incarceration for possession with intent to deliver heroin with fentanyl, an additional five- to 10-years’ incarceration for prohibited possession of a firearm and an additional 3.5 to 10 years for criminal conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver. Concurrent incarceration periods were imposed for related offenses.