Guilty plea in fatal shooting

Iziah Lewis will be sentenced next month

BUCKS COUNTY COURTHOUSE » Harrison Moss, now 17, pleaded guilty in Bucks County Court on May 21 to voluntary manslaughter, robbery, conspiracy to commit robbery and illegally carrying a firearm without a license in connection with the fatal shooting of 19-year-old Iziah Lewis, the Bucks County District Attorney’s office said.

Sentencing is scheduled for June 27, the D.A.’s office said in a May 21 release.

“In pleading guilty, Moss admitted firing the bullet that killed Lewis on Oct. 29, 2016, in Perkasie’s Kulp Memorial Park,” the DA’s Office said.

Moss, of Wyncote, who was 15 at the time of the shooting, was

charged along with Carson Kimnach, then 17, of Hilltown; Christopher Pavack, then 16, of Perkasie; and Noah Strickland, then 16, of Perkasie. Moss is the only one whose case is being adjudicated in adult court. All four were initially charged as adults, but the other three teens cases were later sent to juvenile court. Following juvenile court hearings, the three were sent to separate juvenile facilities, the DA’s Office previously said. Under the juvenile system, each could remain under court supervision until they turn 21, the DA’s Office said.

In adult court, the maximum sentence Moss could face is 20 years each for the voluntary manslaughter, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery charges, along with a seven-year maximum sentence for the firearms charge, the DA’s Office said.

During the May 21 court proceedings, Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber gave the facts of the case, which Moss affirmed, the DA’s Office said.

The four teens had been planning for several weeks to rob marijuana dealers, he said.

“Originally, they planned to don masks and rob a Cheltenham dealer, but the dealer refused to meet them, the prosecutor said. So the four returned to Perkasie,

where another dealer arranged for them to meet Lewis in the park that night,” the DA’s Office said. “At the park, Moss and two of the teens walked toward Lewis’s vehicle. They demanded his drugs, reaching unsuccessfully for the marijuana as Moss and a second teen brandished handguns.”

Lewis drove off and the three robbers fled, but Lewis then returned, got out of his vehicle and chased the three to the rear of the park, the DA’s Office said.

One of the robbers fired a warning shot into the air; Moss warned Lewis he would shoot him if he kept advancing, the DA’s Office said.

Lewis “took a couple more steps, and Moss fired a shot which struck the victim

in the chest,” Furber said.

Lewis yelled and began to run away, he said.

“Moss fired a second time, hitting only a tree, while Lewis collapsed on the ground,” the DA’s Office said.

Moss told one of the other teens that he thought he shot Lewis in the leg and that he had seen Lewis with a gun, the DA’s Office said. Police did not find a gun on Lewis, Furber said.

The Perkasie Borough Police Department, Bucks County Detectives and Pennsylvania State Police investigated the case, the DA’s Office said.

Lewis was a 2016 Pennridge High School graduate and a member of the school’s football team.