FARRELL Board OKs parole request

Pinkins would still have to serve one year in a halfway house .
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
FARRELL, Pa. -- The Pennsylvania Board of Pardons has recommended that Rickie D. Pinkins' life imprisonment sentence for murder be reduced to life on parole.
The board issued its recommendation after a hearing in Harrisburg on Thursday. The recommendation now goes to the governor, who must make the final decision on the request for commutation.
The Board of Pardons said that, should the governor agree, Pinkins will be eligible for release one year from the date the governor signs the commutation.
Pinkins, 42, formerly of Wallis Avenue, was convicted of third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit robbery 20 years ago in the robbery-murder of Sharon bar owner Orland Porreca, known as Peanuts.
Pinkins was convicted in July 1982 and given the life sentence plus 5 to 10 years on the conspiracy charge in June 1983.
One of six charged
He was one of six young men charged in the robbery and slaying of Porreca, 67, who was fatally wounded during a robbery of 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 that was used in the slaying.
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 in the case.
James Epstein, Mercer County District attorney, said he didn't oppose Pinkins' efforts to get a sentence commutation nor did 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, he said.
Pinkins will have to serve at least one year in a community corrections facility (halfway house) before actually being paroled.
Two of those charged in the Porreca case have completed their prison sentences. Alfred Boatwright, now 45, and Albert Phillips, now 52, both of Sharon, both pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and were sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison.
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 still both serving life sentences.