A Cambria County judge has denied a request for a shorter sentence from a man convicted in the beating death of Tyrone’s Neptune Fire Chief Ray Stringer last year.
A hearing on the request from George T. Lightcap IV’s attorneys was held earlier this month according to a clerk in Judge Norman Krumenacker III’s office. The judge’s written order was issued on Monday denying the request.
In March, a jury found Lightcap of Nanty Glo guilty of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault in the beating death of Stringer.
Lightcap was not guilty of first and third-degree murder and voluntary manslaughter in the trial that stemmed from an incident last August at the Nanty Glo VFW.
In May, Lightcap was sentenced to five-and-a-half to 20 years for aggravated assault in Stringer’s death. Lightcap was also sentenced on an involuntary manslaughter conviction that carries a lesser sentence. At the time, Cambria County assistant DA Gary Costlow said the sentences would be concurrent. Lightcap was also sentenced for a unrelated drug conviction to be served concurrently with the other sentences.
Shortly after his sentencing, attorneys filed a motion to have the minimum sentence reduced. At the time, one of Lightcap’s attorneys, Robert Davis Gleason, said, “We feel under the sentencing guidelines and the facts and circumstances of the case the sentence is excessive.”
Costlow called the sentence “appropriate.” He said Lightcap would not necessarily be automatically eligible for parole after serving 5 1/2 years. He said the judge imposed a sentence that was within “the standard range” for an aggravated assault conviction.
