The Pennsylvania Superior Court on Tuesday dismissed a challenge by an Altoona man convicted of simple assault, disorderly conduct and harassment that occurred outside the Eleventh Street Towers nearly six years ago.

Dimitrius C. Miles, 59, a resident of the Towers, was sentenced to a prison term of one to two years plus a year of probation by Blair County Judge Jackie A. Bernard following his convictions for the offenses.

According to the Tuesday opinion issued by Superior Court Judges Deborah A. Kunselman, Megan Sullivan and Correale F. Stevens, Miles became involved in a fight with a man and a woman who also resided in the Towers.

The male was sitting on a bench outside the apartment building talking to a friend when Miles “threw him off the bench where he was sitting, and pinned him with both legs on his chest.”

The man’s girlfriend came to his aid and began kicking Miles in the side to get him off the victim.

Miles, described as a “big” man, stood up and pushed the girlfriend with both hands.

She landed on the ground, breaking her left wrist.

Surgery was required to repair her wrist, the opinion reported.

Miles, during his trial, denied he was the perpetrator who was involved in the fight, but, the opinion noted that, at the conclusion of the government’s case, Miles requested that, in her charge to the jury, the judge should include a self-defense instruction.

She deferred her decision on his request, but eventually denied it after he testified and did not raise a self-defense issue.

However, in his most recent appeal to the Superior Court, Miles raised this one issue: whether the trial court erred in failing to grant his request to instruct the jury on self-defense given the facts of the case.

The Superior Court panel noted that the defense eventually did not lodge a challenge to the charge given to the jury.

“We observe, however, as the trial court did, that Miles waived his claim because he failed to object timely to the charge given.

“No portions of the charge nor omissions from the charge may be assigned as error, unless specific objections are made thereto before the jury retires to deliberate,” the appeals court stated, as a rule.

The review panel went further in its explanation when it explained that when Miles testified he did not raise the issue of self-defense.

Instead, the judges explained, he denied being the perpetrator.

“Consequently, the (trial court) found Miles did not present the issue of self-defense and denied (his) request for a jury instruction.”

The opinion concluded that Miles’ attorney at the time did not object and therefore “did not preserve Miles’ challenge to the court’s jury instructions.”

After his sentencing, Miles expressed a desire to serve his time behind bars in a state correctional institution because he has access to more resources at a state prison.