West Norriton man jailed for Norristown stabbing

NORRISTOWN >> A West Norriton man is on his way to prison in connection with a stabbing incident in Norristown.

Ryan Fleming, 20, of the 100 block of Liberty Lane, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 2½-to-5years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault in connection with a December 2018 attack incident in the borough that injured two men.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, also ordered Fleming to pay a total of $28,860 in restitution to two victims.

An investigation began about 9:06 p.m. Dec. 15 when Norristown police responded to the area of Noble and Lafayette streets for a report of a stabbing. Arriving officers encountered a Philadelphia man, “who had multiple stab wounds throughout his upper body and left leg,” and who reported Fleming stabbed him on a parking lot in the 100 block of Noble Street, according to the criminal complaint filed by Norristown Detective William Klinger.

The victim told detectives he was a front seat passenger in a friend’s vehicle when Fleming, who also was in the vehicle, grabbed him and stabbed him multiple times.

“(The victim) was able to remove himself from the vehicle and call 911,” said Klinger, adding the victim was transported by medical helicopter to a Philadelphia hospital for emergency treatment.

The male driver of the vehicle also was stabbed, according to an arrest affidavit, and he was found on Buttonwood Street between West Main and Airy streets. The second victim, who sustained stab wounds to his upper body, told detectives that Fleming stabbed him and then took his vehicle.

The vehicle, a Mitsubishi Mirage, was located by police on Dec. 16, abandoned in the rear of the 900 block of Jackson Street, according to court documents. When detectives searched the vehicle, they found a knife between the front passenger seat and door jam, according to the criminal complaint.

“As I looked closer I could observe blood on the doublesided knife blade and tip,” Klinger alleged, adding the knife and parts of the vehicle were swabbed for DNA.

Investigators also obtained video surveillance footage from a business in the area of the stabbing. The footage depicted the Mitsubishi Mirage and one victim “jumping out of the passenger seat in distress” and the second victim running after the vehicle.

“The vehicle then flees at a high rate of speed through the parking lot, jumping over a curve and fleeing the area,” Klinger alleged, adding other video surveillance showed Fleming abandoning the vehicle behind Jackson Street and “shows him pulling items out of the vehicle and rummaging through it.”