Bishop gets 20-40 years for murdering brother

The parents of a Hempfield Township teenager lashed out Thursday at the Westmoreland County judge who sentenced their surviving son to serve up to 40 years in prison for the bludgeoning death of his older brother.

Jeffrey and Karen Bishop told reporters outside the courtroom that Judge Debra A. Pezze mishandled the case against their son and used it for political gain.

Minutes earlier, Pezze sentenced 16-year-old Ian Bishop to serve 20 to 40 years in prison for the April 19, 2002, claw-hammer slaying of his 18-year-old brother, Adam, in the family's Bovard-area home.

Adam Bishop was struck at least 18 times in the head with a claw hammer and wooden club before being left to die in a bathtub.

"It's pretty sad. This was her first real big case, and she really wanted it. She was going to do everything she could to keep it in her courtroom. I think she used my son as her political poster boy," Karen Bishop told reporters. "She's a woman, she can't get emotional on the bench, but she's saying to everyone, 'I'm a woman and look how tough I can be on this family.'"

In a written statement given to the Tribune-Review, Jeffrey Bishop said Pezze, who has been a judge since 1992, will be held accountable should his teen-aged son be hurt in prison.

"If Ian suffers any physical harm in the adult system we will hold Judge Pezze responsible," he wrote.

The sentence Ian Bishop received yesterday could have been longer. He faced a maximum of up to 80 years in prison, but Pezze chose to impose no sentence for a conspiracy conviction.

As a result of the sentence, Ian Bishop, who was 14 at the time of the murder, could be freed from prison at the age of 34, although that decision will rest with the state's parole board. Prosecutors initially contended Ian Bishop planned the murder of his brother and both his parents and charged him with first-degree murder.

If he had been convicted of the premeditated murder of his brother, Ian Bishop faced a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After seven days of testimony during the July trial, the jury determined Ian Bishop killed his brother with great cruelty but that it was not premeditated and therefore convicted him of a lesser charge, third-degree murder.

Bishop has been in the Westmoreland County Prison since his arrest hours after his brother was fatally beaten. He will now be sent to the State Correctional Institution at Pine Grove in Indiana County. That facility was built to house juvenile offenders convicted of adult crimes. Bishop will be kept there until he turns 21 and then will be sent to a conventional adult prison.

Defense attorney Tom Ceraso said the sentence was appropriate but maintained the proper venue for Bishop's case was in juvenile court, where the teen would have received better mental health treatment.

Ceraso said that at the time of the murder Bishop suffered from a major drug problem and was using crack, Ecstasy, cocaine and over-the-counter cold medication. He also had been diagnosed by mental health experts with a personality disorder.

"I think Ian needs treatment, that's basically it. At Pine Grove he can't continue treatment after the age of 21," Ceraso said.

Ceraso said he intends to appeal the conviction. That appeal will focus on Pezze's decision to try Bishop as an adult.

The defense had sought to have Bishop's case sent back to juvenile court, but Pezze ruled she found no basis for that action. A conviction in juvenile court would have meant freedom for Bishop at the age of 21.

Assistant District Attorney Pat Noonan said there was ample evidence to support the conviction and was confident the outcome of the trial would be upheld in the appeals court.

Noonan yesterday argued for a significant jail time for Bishop.

"Ian Bishop poses a significant threat, possibly to himself, but also to the community," Noonan said.

Ian Bishop, wearing a blue prison jumpsuit, showed little emotion yesterday and said nothing during the 20-minute hearing. No witnesses testified, and there was hardly a mention of his deceased brother.

In most sentencing hearings, family members and friends make statements to the court about how the crime has affected their lives. No victim impact statements were made yesterday. Other than the attorneys and judge, only Jeffrey Bishop spoke in court, defending his younger son, criticizing the judge in her handling of the case and blaming the murder of his son Adam on 16-year-old Robert Laskowski.

Jeffrey Bishop told the judge there was not enough evidence to convict his son.

"We will appeal, appeal, appeal," Jeffrey Bishop said.

Ian Bishop's mother periodically dabbed her eyes with a tissue during the hearing but did not speak. As her son was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs she called to him, "Ian, Jesus loves you."

Pezze called Bishop a danger to society and suggested the teen's parents were wrong when they contended there was not enough evidence to support the conviction.

"You know what you did. You know what Mr. Laskowski did, and most importantly, you know what your brother did," Pezze said.

During the trial, Bishop's defense team at first suggested Laskowski instigated the fatal fight that led to Adam Bishop's death. Ceraso argued that although Ian Bishop hit his brother first, it was Laskowski who landed most of the fatal blows.

Laskowski told police he did not participate in the beating, although he was at the house and watched as Ian Bishop repeatedly struck his brother. Laskowski has admitted to helping Ian Bishop move his brother to the bathtub but said he did nothing to help the teen as he lay dying.

Ceraso also told the jury that Adam Bishop started the fatal fight and that Ian Bishop was only defending himself when he used a hammer or club to strike the first blow.

Prosecutors, though, presented evidence that Ian Bishop had a violent nature and was upset with his parents and brother over their attempts to keep him apart from his girlfriend.

Those disciplinary efforts exploded about a week before the murder when Ian Bishop shoved his mother to the floor and his father threw the boy up against a wall. Then the two Bishop boys fought upstairs, Karen Bishop testified at the trial.

Prosecutors presented evidence at the trial that sometime during the beating, Ian Bishop called a friend and asked him to come over with a gun.

When help for Adam Bishop arrived, Ian Bishop offered no assistance. He drank from a gallon of milk, changed his clothes, left the house and went to Westmoreland Mall.

At the mall, Ian Bishop told friends that he killed his brother. Many of those high school students testified for the prosecution.

Laskowski's case is scheduled for trial in January. He is charged with first-degree murder, but officials confirmed last week that plea bargain negotiations are ongoing.

Laskowski, of Hempfield's Wendover section, is seeking a deal in which he would plead guilty to third-degree murder and leave sentencing up to Pezze.