This article was originally published on GoErie.com by Tim Hahn on November 17, 2017
Two Erie men charged in connection with a February shooting that damaged an occupied eastside residence were sentenced to prison Friday morning after pleading guilty in October.
Robert J. Harris Jr., 20, and Shawn S. Spearman, 22, also had their sentences reimposed in earlier criminal cases for violating the terms of release in those cases by being charged in the new case.
Erie police accused Harris of firing shots from a .22-caliber handgun into an occupied residence in the 2900 block of Holland Street after Spearman’s residence in the 500 block of West 17th Street was hit by gunfire on Feb. 26. Investigators charge that Spearman drove Harris to the Holland Street residence.
No one was reported injured in either shooting.
Erie County Judge William R. Cunningham sentenced Harris on Friday to a standard range sentence of two to four years in state prison on a felony count of carrying a firearm without a license, to which Harris pleaded guilty on Oct. 3.
Cunningham also reimposed a five-to-18-month sentence on a retaliation charge to which Harris pleaded guilty in a 2016 case, consecutive to the sentence in the February case; and reimposed a 12-month probationary sentence on a witness intimidation charge to which Harris pleaded guilty in another 2016 case, consecutive to the sentences in the other cases.
Harris was given credit for the time he has spent in the Erie County Prison since his Feb. 27 arraignment.
Cunningham sentenced Spearman to four to 12 months in prison for his guilty plea on Oct. 3 to a disorderly conduct charge in the February case. Cunningham reimposed a one-to-23-month sentence, consecutive to the disorderly conduct sentence, that Spearman received after he pleaded guilty to a simple assault charge in a 2013 case.
Spearman was given credit for 378 days that he has served in prison. Cunningham said he structured Spearman’s sentence so that Spearman would serve it in county prison.
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