State College man to face tougher sentence for robbery

The sentencing of a State College man convicted of felony robbery in 2015 has been sent back by the state Superior Court for resentencing.

Gabriel Shull, 19, was found guilty of robbery, unlawful restraint and simple assault following an armed robbery attempt in October 2014. He was sentenced by a Clinton County judge to 29 to 59 months in the Centre County Correctional Facility in August 2015.

According to a news release by the Centre County District Attorney’s Office, the Superior Court affirmed Shull’s convictions, but remanded and vacated the sentence, finding that “the judge erred in sentencing Shull much too leniently for such a serious crime.”

The commonwealth appealed the judge’s discretion, the release said, alleging that the trial court abused its discretion in refusing to apply a deadly weapon enhancement, in sentencing Shull below the guideline range and in modifying Shull’s sentence for the sole purpose of changing his place of confinement from a state prison to a county jail.

The Superior Court noted in its 54-page opinion, the release said, that it was “astonished at the efforts the trial court made to keep Shull out of a state correctional institute.”

The case returns to the judge to be resentenced under the Superior Court guidelines, District Attorney Stacy Parks Miller said.

This story was originally published September 17, 2016 at 11:04 AM with the headline "State College man to face tougher sentence for robbery."