The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

June 3, 2009

UPDATE: Man loses appeal in 2007 choking case

By Joe Pinchot

SHARON — A former Philadelphia man who choked a Sharon woman until she lost consciousness has lost an appeal of his sentence.

Dennis R. Thompkins, 30, who is housed in Frackville, was sentenced in August by Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge Thomas R. Dobson to 6 to 20 years in prison on charges of aggravated assault and possession of cocaine.

The assault occurred Oct. 25, 2007, on the porch of a home in the 400 block of Walnut Street, Sharon. Police said Thompkins argued with his occasional girlfriend, pointed a BB gun at her, threatened to kill her and choked her.

Thompkins alleged Dobson did not properly take into account his “mental health impairments and diseases, including psychosis and paranoid schizophrenia.”

However, a three-judge panel of Superior Court said Thompkins did not allege how the sentence was inconsistent with the Sentencing Code or violated the norms that underlie sentencing. Such an allegation is required before the court will review the discretionary factors of sentencing, they said in an opinion filed May 26.

The judges added that Thompkins’ appeal lacks merit because Dobson reviewed a presentence report and noted Thompkins’ mental health issues at sentencing, along with his prior convictions and the amount of physical harm the victim suffered.

“Your combination makes you dangerous,” Dobson told him. “You snap.”

Dobson also noted Thompkins had had a hard life, including being shot six times, but that he had nearly killed the victim.

The Superior Court judges said the sentence was reasonable, and noted it was within sentencing guidelines.

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