Franklin Regional stabbing rampage suspect Alex Hribal pleads guilty

Tina Hribal quietly sat two rows behind as her son stood up, hands cuffed and legs shackled, and told a Westmoreland County judge that he will plead guilty to a knife rampage at Franklin Regional High School three years ago that injured 21 people, including four critically.

Alex Hribal, 20, of Murrysville will be sentenced in about three months. He faces decades in prison.

"It's a very difficult day," his father, Harold Hribal, said Tuesday as he and his wife, who clutched her son's stuffed monkey toy during the hearing, left a Greensburg courtroom.

The Hribals watched as their now-adult son pleaded guilty to 43 felony counts, including 21 charges each of attempted murder and aggravated assault for the April 9, 2014, attack in a high school hallway before classes. The case had been scheduled to go to trial on Nov. 13.

Alex Hribal, dressed in a blue prison jumpsuit, said little during the 30-minute hearing. At times he directly answered in the affirmative when Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani asked him repeatedly if he understood the crimes for each of the charges he faced.

When asked why he was pleading guilty, Hribal softly responded, "Because I am guilty."

Police said Hribal took two kitchen knives from home to school and slashed and stabbed 20 students and a security guard as he walked down a hallway.

Several students were severely injured, including two girls whose faces were slashed, while others were struck with the knives in their chests, neck, legs and arms.

No one died in the attack.

Hribal's plea did not come as part of a deal for reduced time or with the promise that any charges would be dismissed.

Feliciani told Hribal he could be sentenced up to 800 years in prison after an investigation by the county's probation department is completed in about three months. That investigation will focus on Hribal's personal history, mental health issues and victim impact — all factors the judge said he will use in determining a sentence.

District Attorney John Peck said he would ask the judge to sentence Hribal to 30 to 60 years in prison, the same terms of a deal the defense rejected last year.

"Some of the victims will live with their trauma for a long time, maybe longer than Mr. Hribal serves his sentence in prison," Peck said.

Peck met last week for about 90 minutes with many of the victims and their parents in the high school library to discuss Hribal's plea and a potential sentence.

He said many victims, but not all, were satisfied with the outcome. Several were in court Tuesday to witness the plea but declined to comment afterward.

Hribal's parents said they would have more to say during the sentencing hearing.

Defense attorney Pat Thomassey said the decision for Hribal to plead guilty was finalized last weekend after discussions with him and his parents.

"We didn't have much choice but to enter a plea. Every motion I filed was denied by the court," Thomassey said. "I'll be arguing for as light a sentence as I can in light of his mental health issues, which I think are unresolved."

Almost immediately since his arrest minutes after the rampage, the defense has argued that Hribal, who was 16 at the time, was mentally ill.

During multiple pretrial hearings, the defense presented evidence that Hribal suffered from depression and schizophrenia. In court Tuesday, Hribal said he was on medication for depression.

Police found a hand-written manifesto in Hribal's locker after the attack. In that document, Hribal talked about his dissatisfaction with school, problems with other students and a need to do harm. He also expressed praise for two teens who killed students during a 1999 shooting rampage at Columbine High School in Colorado.

Thomassey said that once Hribal is sentenced he will appeal several pretrial rulings in the case made by Feliciani, including a rejection of the defense effort to have him plead guilty but mentally ill and a failed bid to have the case transferred to juvenile court.

"He knows he had to plead guilty. There was no insanity defense," Thomassey said. "The family decided not to make all those people testify and not drag this out at trial for a couple of weeks."