Judge sentences city man to five years on assault charge

June 12, 2004|By PEPPER BALLARD

A Hagerstown man was sentenced to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty Thursday in Washington County Circuit Court to charges related to stealing items from cars parked in Clear Spring, pushing his mother and breaking out a window to a police cruiser.

Terry Brian Swope Jr., 18, whose last address before his arrest was 309 Fridinger Ave. in Hagerstown, was sentenced by Circuit Judge Donald E. Beachley to five years in state prison on a second-degree assault charge. Beachley sentenced him to consecutive but suspended sentences on two charges of misdemeanor theft and a charge of malicious destruction of property worth more than $500.

After Swope pleaded guilty to the second-degree assault charge, Washington County Assistant State's Attorney Gina Cirincion said that on Feb. 18 at 11:22 p.m., Hagerstown Police Department officers went to Swope's home and found that he had pushed his mother across the kitchen and had punched a hole in the wall.

Cirincion said one of the theft charges stemmed from an incident on Feb. 24 at 3:54 a.m. in which two men were seen lifting door handles to cars parked on Cumberland Street in Clear Spring and several items, including stereo equipment, were taken from the cars.

Cirincion said the second theft charge involved an incident on Feb. 25 in which a purse was reported stolen from a car parked on Cumberland Street.

A search of Swope's home turned up some of the stolen items.

For each of the misdemeanor theft charges, Beachley handed Swope a year and a day consecutive sentence, but suspended the sentences.

Swope also was charged with malicious destruction of property worth more than $500 in connection with an Aug. 31, 2003, incident in which a Washington County Sheriff's Department deputy pulled over the then-17-year-old on suspicion of drunken driving on Longmeadow Road. Once placed in the cruiser, Swope kicked out a rear window, causing about $1,300 in damage, court documents state.

Beachley sentenced him to a consecutive two-year sentence in prison on the malicious destruction of property charge, but suspended that sentence.

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