Metro

HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man with ties to a shooting in a 2024 drug deal gone bad has rendered guilty pleas in Blair County court for a state prison sentence of two to four years’ incarceration.

James Alvin Cain, 39, who has been in the county prison since Altoona police arrested him a year ago, presented the pleas Tuesday to felony charges of aggravated assault and criminal trespassing and misdemeanor charges of loitering and prowling and conspiracy.

Senior Judge Richard A. Lewis of Dauphin accepted Cain’s pleas and imposed the negotiated sentence that puts him in a position to await transfer to a state prison. The judge also told Cain he would be credited for the time served to date.

While Cain was deemed ineligible for the State Drug Treatment Program, Lewis advised Cain that the sentence will require his participation in a drug and alcohol evaluation and to follow through with treatment recommendations.

When Cain asked if therapy would be among the treatment recommendations, Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Thomas answered yes.

“I want to get help so I can get over this drug addiction,” Cain said later.

While Altoona police initially charged Cain with attempted homicide after the Aug. 17, 2024, shooting in Juniata that left a man with bullet holes in each cheek, a dislocated jaw and an extensive blood loss, that felony was dismissed at a preliminary hearing in October 2024 before Magisterial District Judge Daniel DeAntonio.

At that same hearing, an attempted homicide charge against Cain’s co-defendant, Benjamin Merritts, was allowed to stand.

Based on the charges, police identified Merritts as the person who shot three or four times at a 46-year-old male victim inside an apartment building on the 1300 block of North Fourth Avenue, before Merritts and Cain were seen leaving the building, then going in different directions.

In presenting Lewis with an abbreviated account of the details, Thomas said Merritts and Cain were at the building to buy meth from the shooting victim. After the drug deal soured and the victim indicated that he was keeping Merritts’ money, Thomas said it was Merritts who became angry and fired the shots and struck the victim.

Charges indicate that the victim was transported to UPMC Altoona for surgery, then transferred to UPMC Pittsburgh.

Merritts, who remains in the county prison with bail set at $750,000 cash, is scheduled to be in county court on Aug. 21 for a review of his pending charges.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.