Prison for dad in fatal robbery
Man sentenced for hindering apprehension of teen suspects
DOYLESTOWN >> The father of one of four teens implicated in the 2016 fatal shooting of 19-yearold Iziah Ramon-Lewis has been sentenced to six to 18 months in Bucks County Correctional Facility after pleading guilty Feb. 11 to charges of hindering apprehension and tampering with evidence.
After the shooting, Stephen Strickland, now 51, of the 600 block of Highland Drive, Perkasie, instructed the teens to wash their hands with bleach and emptied and cleaned the guns they had used, investigators said. The teens’ clothing was also washed, investigators said.
The Oct. 29, 2016, shooting at Perkasie’s Second Street Park occurred in a botched attempt to rob a marijuana dealer, investigators said.
Carson Kimnach, 17 at the time, from Hilltown; Christopher Pavack, then 16, of Perkasie; and Noah Strickland, 16 at the time, of Perkasie, were each adjudicated in the juvenile system and sent to juvenile facilities. Harrison Moss, 15 at the time of the shooting, of Wyncote, pleaded guilty in adult court to firing the shot that killed Ramon-Lewis and was sentenced to just under 6.25 years to a little less than 12.5 years in state
prison, followed by 10 years probation.
What Stephen Strickland did was illegal and immoral, but was an attempt to do something for others, Richard Fink, Strickland’s attorney, said.
“He puts himself last. He really cares about his family,” he said.
“He was trying in a really bad way to be there for his family,” Fink said, asking that the sentence allow Strickland to remain available for his family.
Bucks County District Attorney’s Office Chief of Economic Crimes and Arson Division Marc Furber, however, said Strickland went through several conscious decisions and attempted to hide the teens involvement in the crime.
“The first message he
sends to them is, ‘well, this can be covered up,’” Furber said.
“It was a series of calculated decisions,” that sent a bad message to both the juveniles and the community, he said.
“I apologize to my family and friends,” Strickland said. “I realize what I’ve done was wrong.”
He said he continues to be in therapy once a week.
“I accept that your intent was to protect your
family,” Judge Rea Boylan told Strickland.
What he did goes beyond that, though, she said.
“Your actions have affected the community,” Boylan said. “Your actions have affected the system of justice.”
She sentenced Strickland to three to six months on the hindering apprehension charge and three to 12 months on the tamper in g w ith ev idenc e
charge, with the two to be served consecutively, totaling six to 18 months. She also sentenced him to 200 hours of community service and to pay court costs.
In answer to a request from Fink, Boylan said she would not consider Strickland being put under house arrest.
Str ick land, who had been free on unrestricted bail, was charged on Sept. 20, 2018.
“In charging and arrest-
ing Mr. Strickland today, we want to send a clear message of deterrence to parents everywhere,” Bucks County District Attorney Matthew Weintraub said in a release at the time. “While it’s OK to love your children unconditionally, it’s a crime to aid them in covering up a crime. Mr. Strickland chose to commit a crime on his son’s behalf, and now he, too, will face the criminal justice system.”