• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Allentown Man Who Testified in Homicide Trial Gets 3-6 Years on Drug, Assault Charges: He Pleaded Guilty to Brawl at Club Where Bouncer Was Stabbed.

Posted on: Tuesday, 4 April 2006, 09:00 CDT

By Debbie Garlicki, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Apr. 4--A 22-year-old Allentown man who testified for the prosecution in a recent homicide trial that ended in an acquittal got the benefit of a plea bargain for his cooperation.

Justin V. Hutchinson, who was charged with drug offenses and assault, was sentenced Monday to three to six years in state prison.

Hutchinson had testified in the Lehigh County trial of Maliek D. Smith, who last week was found not guilty in the June 2004 fatal stabbing of Jason Warke.

Warke, 23, of Bethlehem, was a bouncer at Sticks & Rhythm, known as Da Bridge, at 333 Court St., Allentown. He was stabbed five times during a fight in the nightclub.

Smith, 22, of Allentown, turned himself in to police five months later.

After the slaying, police questioned Hutchinson; another adult, Johnny Will Thomas, who was supposed to testify but couldn't be found by police during the trial; and juveniles who were at the club when Warke was killed.

Hutchinson told police and the jury in Smith's trial that Smith said he stabbed the bouncer.

During the trial, Hutchinson, who said he has been friends with Smith for several years, admitted on cross-examination that he wanted to help himself in his own criminal cases.

In December, Hutchinson pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to deliver 200 grams of cocaine. He also pleaded guilty to simple assault in the brawl at the nightclub.

In exchange for Hutchinson's cooperation in the homicide case against Smith, prosecutors said they would not seek a four-year mandatory sentence in the drug case. They also agreed Hutchinson couldn't get a minimum sentence of more than three years in prison.

At Monday's hearing, Assistant District Attorney Amanda Racines Lovett told President Judge William H. Platt that Hutchinson testified but that the prosecution believed he was not "100 percent truthful."

Hutchinson, she said, agreed with everything the prosecution asked him on direct examination and everything the defense said on cross-examination.

It was difficult, the prosecutor said, to discern what Hutchinson was saying.

Defense lawyer John Waldron said Hutchinson cooperated and testified at the preliminary hearing for Smith and at Smith's trial.

The fact that the trial ended in an acquittal and that Hutchinson answered questions from Smith's lawyer in the trial doesn't mean he wasn't telling the truth, Waldron said.

Hutchinson, who had lived on S. 10th Street, has been in the county jail for one year and nine months.

Waldron told the judge he could impose a sentence of less than three years under terms of the plea bargain.

Platt told Hutchinson he believes he already got leniency because the mandatory sentence wasn't pursued and the sentence was capped at three years.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Morning Call, Allentown, Pa.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Morning Call, Allentown, Pennsylvania

More News in this Category