Published: November 20, 2008 11:41 pm      

Plea reached in stabbing death

EBENSBURG — A Johnstown teenager pleaded guilty Thursday in Cambria County Court to voluntary manslaughter in the stabbing death of her boyfriend during an argument that turned physical.

Under a plea bargain, Brittany McCoy, now 18, faces a two- to four-year state prison sentence followed by six years of probation. She will be sentenced Jan. 13 by Judge David Tulowitzki.

She was accused of stabbing 21-year-old Bruce Dickerson Jr. once in the chest Jan. 18 at their apartment in the Coopersdale Homes.

At the time, McCoy was 17 years old, but, as required under Pennsylvania law, was charged as an adult in the homicide case.

Assistant District Attorney Wayne Langerholc said that the argument became physical, and when the couple went into their young child’s bedroom, Dickerson “hit her into the bunk bed. She fell down, and getting up, she located a knife on the bunk bed and stabbed him with the knife.”

Defense Attorney Tom Dickey of Altoona had contended that McCoy had acted in self-defense, or possibly the stabbing was accidental when Dickerson turned and ran at her.

Assistant District Attorney Tamara Bernstein said that under the voluntary manslaughter charge, the defendant was pleading guilty “to an intentional act (committed) with an unreasonable belief.”

Prosecutors dropped the more serious charges of third-degree murder and aggravated assault because of “circumstances (of the incident) and after speaking with the victim’s family,” Langerholc said.

Dickey said that the decision to enter the plea “was a tough one,” but a better choice than chancing a conviction on a more serious charge.

The terms of the plea bargain will give McCoy the chance “to be back with her daughter” while the defendant still is a young woman, Dickey said.

McCoy already has spent more than 10 months in the county prison. She was arrested by Johnstown police immediately after the incident at the apartment.

She was scheduled to go on trial in January. Thursday’s court session was to have been a hearing on the defense’s pre-trial motions. Instead the attorneys, huddling together and, at times, with the judge, negotiated the plea bargain.