WASHINGTON, Pa. (AP) - A man previously on death row has been sentenced on a third-degree murder plea in a stabbing death outside a western Pennsylvania bar 3 1/2 decades ago.
The Observer-Reporter reports that Thomas Gorby was sentenced Monday in Washington County in the killing of 38-year-old Drayton Sphar, who was stabbed 14 times in a vehicle parked outside the Somerset Inn a few days before Christmas in 1985.
Gorby was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to death, but the state Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing, saying the defense should have raised Gorby’s mental health as a mitigating factor. Prosecutors in 2011 opted not to pursue the death penalty and Gorby was sentenced to life in prison.
A federal judge later said a “diminished capacity” defense would have allowed Gorby to acknowledge having committed the homicide while disputing that he intended to kill the victim. Citing Gorby’s history of drug and alcohol abuse as well as mental health problems, the judge said he should either get a new trial or be released.
The maximum sentence in Pennsylvania in 1985 for third-degree murder was 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment, and Gorby has been incarcerated since 1986, when he was arrested in Texas. The judge sentenced him to that and to a maximum of 18 to 26 years on the robbery conviction.
Defense attorney John Giselson said after the hearing that his client’s maximum sentence would end April 24, 2022. He called the plea a compromise, citing the death of witnesses and his client now being more than 60 years old. Gorby has been educated in prison and is now drug- and alcohol-free, Giselson said.
Drayton Sphar’s daughter, Shannon, who was 14 when her father was killed, told the court that the defendant “took a lot” from her family, which has ever since found itself “back in court year after year” due to the series of appeals.
“When is enough enough?” she asked. “Do you believe he needs to be out in society, someone who went around flaunting my father’s belongings and a sharp knife?”
Referring to Gorby’s statement that he had a rough childhood, she said: “Mr. Gorby, I had a rough childhood and my brother had a rough childhood. You took so much from us.”
Testifying via video from the State Correctional Institution at Fayette, Gorby didn’t respond to the victim impact statement but answered, “Yes, your honor,” when the judge asked him if took responsibility in admitting to the crime.
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