Published: January 13, 2009 11:17 pm      

Teen sentenced in fatal stabbing

EBENSBURG — An 18-year-old Johnstown woman was sentenced Tuesday to two to four years in state prison, followed by six years probation, in the stabbing death of her boyfriend during an argument that turned physical.

Brittany McCoy, who was 17 at the time of the incident, pleaded guilty in November to voluntary manslaughter, reduced from third-degree murder.

Johnstown police charged that she stabbed 21-year-old Bruce Dickerson Jr. once in the chest last Jan. 18 at their apartment in the Coopersdale Homes.

Judge David Tulowitzki ordered McCoy to pay $4,800 restitution in funeral costs. McCoy, who has been in jail nearly a year, was given credit for time served.

The judge, at the request of defense Attorney Thomas Dickey of Altoona, agreed to recommend to the state Department of Corrections that McCoy be held at a state prison in the Philadelphia area to be closer to her family, including her 2-year-old daughter.

Nobody from the victim’s family appeared for the sentencing, but Assistant District Attorney Wayne Langerholc said that the family had approved the plea bargain and the recommended sentence, which was in the mitigation range.

“The family’s desire was not to have two victims in this case,” Langerholc said.

Dickey said that the defendant had decided to enter the plea rather than chance conviction on the more serious offense, even though there had been a history of abuse in the relationship.

“This is not a situation where my client planned this attack or fight. There was no premeditation. She has no criminal record and nothing to indicate violence in the past,” Dickey said.

Dickey had suggested that McCoy had acted in self-defense or that possibly the stabbing was accidental when Dickerson – who had thrown her against a bunk bed – had run at her.