Everage

A former Altoona man, convicted of brutalizing two women as they were walking along Sixth Avenue early on a December morning after purchasing sandwiches at a nearby convenience store, has failed to persuade the Pennsylvania Superior Court that he was the victim of mistaken identity.

A Blair County jury in September 2017 found Maurice Phillip Everage, now 39, guilty of aggravated assault, simple assault, carrying a firearm without a license, illegal possession of a firearm and terroristic threats.

Former Blair County President Judge Elizabeth Doyle sentenced Everage to a term of 10.5 to 21 years in a state correctional institution.

He is presently incarcerated in SCI Waymart.

Since his conviction, he has challenged the jury’s findings, with his latest appeal to the Superior Court contending that his lawyer was ineffective for eliciting a statement during trial from one of the victims that she knew Everage and that she had told a friend that he had attacked another woman on a prior occasion.

The defense attorney did not object to the statement, contending that it showed the witness was confused about the identity of her attacker because she noted in her statement that he had a twin brother.

Everage, the defense claimed, did not have a twin brother.

His trial counsel decided not to object to the incriminating statement: because he didn’t want to highlight it; because it demonstrated her confusion about the victim’s identity; and because it would support a possible jury conclusion that she was out to get Everage for some reason.

In reviewing the Everage claim that his attorney was ineffective for allowing the reference to a prior victim to stand unchallenged, Blair County Judge David B. Consiglio ruled that the defense counsel’s explanation was “reasonable.”

It was Consiglio’s ruling that was before the Superior Court.

Superior Court Judges Victor P. Stabile, Mary P. Murray and Jill Beck upheld the ruling by the Blair judge.

Everage argued that his attorney had “no strategic basis” when eliciting a comment from the victim-witness that linked him to a prior assault on another woman.

The Superior Court judges stated they agreed with Consiglio’s ruling that “trial counsel had a reasonable basis for not objecting to the statement or moving for curative instructions.”

The incident that led to Everage’s arrest occurred on Dec. 9, 2016.

The two victims were walking on the 2300 block of Sixth Avenue at 2 a.m. They had been to a Sheetz to purchase sandwiches and were on their way home when they noticed a man on the opposite side of the street staring at them.

He wanted to know what they were staring at and pulled up his shirt to display a gun.

The man then approached the women from behind, and when they turned around, the man “got in the face” of one of the women. She tried calling the police on her cellphone.

He swatted it out of her hand.

The second woman was on her phone and the man tossed it. He then pulled his gun and put it to her forehead.

After a plea by the first woman to avoid violence, the man began to walk away, but then he turned with his gun and pistol-whipped the second woman — the gun cutting through her lip and into her gum.

She ended up with cuts on her cheek as well.

Two patrol officers arrived at 2:21 a.m. and found the woman who had been pistol-whipped lying on a porch bleeding.

The injured woman was able to pick out Everage as her attacker when shown a photo lineup of eight suspects.

She also identified him in court as her attacker.