9 Years After Crime, Man Finally Sentenced

SUNBURY - Nearly nine years after the crime, a Selinsgrove man was sentenced Monday to three to six years in state prison for his role in a 2005 Paxinos armed robbery.

Northumberland County President Judge William H. Wiest sentenced Erik J. Harrington, 23, in Northumberland County Court. In September, he had pleaded no contest to felony counts of criminal conspiracy to commit burglary and theft by unlawful taking.

For each charge, he was sentenced to 18 to 36 months, with the sentences to run consecutively. The judge gave Harrington credit for the 393 days he served in prisons in Snyder and Northumberland Counties from May 2011 to May 2012 after he was apprehended in North Carolina and extradited to Northumberland County. He was placed in prison on $100,000 cash bail, but the bail was reduced to $50,000 in a May 2012 hearing, enabling him to make bail through a bondsman.

On Monday, Harrington was also ordered to pay $6,400 restitution to the victim, James Honecker, and $2,000 to Pennsylvania State Police for DNA testing.

Pete Campana, Harrington's attorney, called Monday's sentence "fair" under the circumstances, saying that the crime happened when the defendant was 16 years old, and that he's changed his life since then.

Harrington was one of four suspects in an armed robbery at Honecker's residence on July 16, 2005. He, Kasey A. Sees, 26, formerly of Sunbury, and two other assailants are accused of entering Honecker's home at 1:30 a.m. and holding him at gunpoint in his living room while threatening to kill him.

Police said the robbers demanded money, ransacked the home and removed 12 rifles and shotguns, knives, ammunition, cash, jewelry, an amplifier and prescription narcotics with a total value of $5,590. Police said the robbers also caused approximately $300 in damage by pulling telephone cords from the wall and damaging two televisions.

Sees was charged by state police at Stonington on Aug. 15, 2006, and eventually pleaded guilty to felony charges of burglary and robbery. He was sentenced to 3 1/3 to 6 2/3 years in state prison and ordered to pay $300 in fines plus costs, make $4,000 restitution to Honecker and pay approximately $8,800 in restitution to Honecker's insurance company.

Sees has since completed his state prison sentence and is free.