A third defendant in an assault case in Mahoning Township that occurred in August 2019, entered a guilty plea on Monday in Carbon County court and was sentenced to a probation term.

Justin Rodriguez, 21, of Lansford, pleaded to one count of simple assault in exchange for the district attorney’s office dropping a felony charge of aggravated assault. Rodriguez entered his plea before President Judge Roger N. Nanovic II.

Rodriguez was one of four charged for the incident that occurred on Aug. 11, 2019, at a residence along Semmels Hill Road. The others charged were Aric Tyler Fox, 21, of Loysville, Perry County, and formerly of Summit Hill; Lucas Mika, 23, of Jim Thorpe; and Alexander Candelario, 21, of Lansford. Candelario’s case is pending, awaiting pretrial conference.

Rodriguez was placed on probation for a year. Fox was sentenced to serve one to one day less 24 months in prison and Mika was sentenced to serve three to one day less 24 months in prison. All three pleaded to simple assault with an aggravated assault count dropped.

In imposing the sentence, Nanovic said he spared Rodriguez a prison term because the defendant lived up to a plea agreement and was ready to pay one-third of the $5,763.05 due for medical expenses incurred by the victim of the assault. Fox and Mika were also ordered to pay the same amount but did not pay anything toward the figure at the time of their sentencing.

Defense attorney Edward M. Olexa claimed his client did not inflict any injuries on the victim but admitted being part of the incident. He said his client had no criminal history the day of the incident.

Rodriquez told the court, “I apologize to the family (of the victim).”

Gazo previously noted that Mika got a longer sentence because he had a prior criminal record.

Case history

At 5:10 p.m. on Aug. 11, 2019, officer Corey L. Frey received a report of an assault that had occurred the night before at a party. The victims, a 15-year-old teen and his brother, were injured during the assault and had to be treated at the hospital.

The teen was treated in the St. Luke’s Lehighton Emergency Room for second-degree burns to the back of his right leg from above his knee to his ankle. The other victim required surgery to wire his jaw shut and also needed stitches in the back of his head to close a laceration. He was taken to the Lehighton hospital but later transferred to a Lehigh Valley trauma center.

The following day police talked to a 16-year-old witness who said she was at the party when someone messaged her, asking for the address. She said the man said he was with one other person. However, two carloads of people showed up, 10 males and two females.

The witness said everything was fine at first, and all of a sudden she saw someone on the ground with three or four men on top of him punching and kicking him.

The witness later identified two of the men and said that the other victim got involved to help his brother and that is when he got punched. The witness was unsure how many times the other victim was punched. She ran inside to get her friend, but when they came back outside the fight was over and everyone involved had left.

The witness identified two men in a photo lineup. On Aug. 13, the two victims came to the station to speak with the officers regarding the assault and said that while at the party, a kid came up to him, asking “who the kid from Allentown was.” The one victim said that as soon as he said, “yeah, why,” he got hit on the side and back of his head and was unsure who initially hit him. The victim said that after being struck he fell and hit his head, and that while on the ground, he continued to get hit and stomped on. A female victim said she had attended the party and was attacked by four men at the same time, but was able to tackle one of the men and covered herself up.

She was shown the photo lineups and identified one of the men who assaulted her.

The other victim said that he went to the party with his cousin, and that when the fight started, he stepped in to help his brother and was hit from out of nowhere. He said that after being struck, he blacked out and woke up on the ground with someone punching him, and that after getting off the ground he was helped to the car.

Assistant District Attorney Brian B. Gazo, who prosecuted the case, said the victims in the assault agreed to the plea deal and reduced charges.

Nanovic also ordered Rodriguez to get a drug and alcohol evaluation and follow any recommendation for treatment, supply a DNA sample, pay court costs of about $1,000 and pay a $50 per month supervision fee while on probation.