A Bedford County man who received a state prison sentence for slashing the throat of a bar patron during an argument over a game of pool has lost his appeal before the Pennsylvania Superior Court.

Brian David Taylor, 53, of Defiance, contended that his sentence of three to 10 years in a state correctional institution was excessive and the judge in his case, Travis W. Livengood, made mistakes while charging the jury.

Taylor also contended that the state police investigation was flawed.

A panel of Superior Court judges that included Alice B. Dubow, Carolyn H. Nichols and Correale F. Stevens ruled late last week that the judge did not abuse his discretion when sentencing Taylor and police did not withhold evidence that was critical to the defense.

The defense appeal filed by Altoona attorney Daniel J. Kiss argued that the police committed what is known as a Brady violation by failing to secure a video from the Rookeez Bar in Coaldale, Bedford County, that showed the victim in the case, Robert Joseph Mayne Jr., was the aggressor in the fight that occurred on Nov. 5, 2021, because, during the argument over the pool game, he shoved Taylor off his bar stool.

At that point, Mayne left the bar.

Taylor, according to the defense, felt under threat and he pulled a knife while outside the bar and slashed Mayne’s throat.

According to the Superior Court, Taylor attempted to leave the parking lot but was prevented from doing so by other patrons who called police and Emergency Services.

Police recovered the knife and obtained a video recording that showed what occurred outside the bar.

However, investigators never obtained footage of what occurred in the bar.

By the time the case came to trial in May 2024, the inside video was no longer available.

Livengood rejected the defense contention that a Brady violation had occurred because investigators did not retrieve the inside tape.

He ruled that the prosecution was never in possession of the inside tape and therefore could not be responsible for its not being available during trial.

“Because the Commonwealth did not possess the evidence, it could not suppress the evidence, willfully or inadvertently,” according to the review panel.

The judges explained also that the defense could have obtained the controversial tape, but it did not do so.

The jury in the Taylor case acquitted him of attempted homicide but found him guilty of aggravated assault, possessing an instrument of crime, simple assault and recklessly endangering another person.

The trial judge sentenced Taylor to a term of three to 10 years on the aggravated assault charge and nine months to two years on the three other charges.

The sentence for simple assault, possessing an instrument of crime and recklessly endangering is to be served concurrently, or at the same time as the sentence for aggravated assault.

A key argument of the defense was that the sentence for aggravated assault greatly exceeded the recommended sentence for the crime.

It was “double the top of the standard range (of Pennsylvania’s sentencing guidelines) and nine months over the aggravated range,” the defense posed.

The defense contested the sentence by noting the trial judge had actually imposed a penalty for attempted homicide — a charge the jury had rejected.

The Superior Court panel stated it found “no merit” to the argument that the sentence “overrode the jury’s acquittal of attempted homicide.”

Livengood rightly explained the seriousness of what occurred the night of the incident, according to the appeals court.

The gash in the victim’s neck was half an inch away from what could have been a homicide, the panel pointed out.

That fact, according to Livengood, meant there was a “strong need to protect the public and to focus on Taylor’s rehabilitative needs, where he was willing to escalate a shoving match into a knife fight.”

The defense in addition contested the instructions the judge provided to the jury.

The trial judge for instance refused to instruct the jury that it could assume “an adverse inference” based on the missing inside tape.

This meant the jury could assume the tape would have been favorable to the defense in that it would show the victim of the knife assault actually assaulting Taylor in the bar.

The Superior Court panel upheld the trial judge’s decision not to instruct the jury on the missing tape, noting it was “owned by the bar” and was “never in the sole possession of the Commonwealth.”

The opinion was written by Dubow.

Taylor is serving his confinement in the State Correctional Institute in Fayette County.