FARRELL, PA. Reduction in prison term sought
The district attorney said the victim's family doesn't oppose the request.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- A former Wallis Avenue man convicted 20 years ago in the robbery-murder of a Sharon bar owner wants his life sentence changed to life on parole.
Rickie D. Pinkins, 42, was convicted in July 1982 and sentenced to life imprisonment in June 1983 for second-degree murder plus five to 10 years for conspiracy to commit robbery.
He was one of six young men charged in the robbery and slaying of Orland Porreca, 67, known as Peanuts, in Porreca's Restaurant on New Castle Avenue on Jan. 9, 1982.
Pinkins wasn't at the scene of the robbery but was convicted of supplying the robbers with a handgun used in the slaying.
Porreca was shot in the back and died two days later.
Pinkins got the most severe sentence of all those charged, and one defendant identified by authorities as the planner of the robbery, Anthony D. Wells, who was 21 and living in Sharon at the time, was acquitted.
Board of pardons to decide
Pinkins has filed an application with the Pennsylvania Board of Pardons, asking that it recommend that the governor grant him a commutation of his sentence from life imprisonment to life parole.
His attorney, Randall Hetrick of Mercer, will get to argue the case before the pardons board at 9 a.m. Thursday in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court chambers in Harrisburg.
James Epstein, Mercer County District attorney, said he hasn't opposed Pinkins' efforts to get a sentence commutation nor have Sharon police, sentencing Judge Francis J. Fornelli or Porreca's family.
Pinkins had minimum involvement in the actual crime and cooperated with authorities in the investigation. A spokesman for the pardons board said those seeking commutation argue they have been rehabilitated and cite their good record in prison.
The board will decide at the end of Thursday's hearing whether to recommend the change.
The board will set a minimum release date, which keeps the prisoner behind bars for one or two additional years,, the spokesman said, noting that, in Pinkins' case, he would have to serve at least one year in a community corrections facility before actually being paroled.
Two others charged in the Porreca case have served their prison sentences and have been released.
Alfred Boatwright, now 45, and Albert Phillips, 52, both of Sharon, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and were sentenced to 10 to 20 years.
Henry A. Bruce Jr., 45, formerly of Farrell, who fired the fatal shot and pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, and Eugene L. Grannison, now 47, formerly of Sharon, who was convicted of second-degree murder, robbery and criminal conspiracy, are serving life sentences.