Poplawski fan headed to prison for gun possession
A Crafton man whose online praise for an attack on police caught the attention of federal authorities was sentenced Tuesday to two years and six months in prison for illegally possessing a firearm.
Hardy Lloyd, 32, pleaded guilty April 12 to the charge.
Defense attorney John Knorr argued for a lighter sentence but said Lloyd should spend some more time in confinement because he suffers from Asperger's syndrome and only recently started functioning on a 10th-grade level.
Lloyd's illness "is marked by failure to recognize, in truly adolescent fashion, the consequences of his action," Knorr said.
Consequently, he needs to be incarcerated to see why it was wrong to stockpile 10 firearms and ammunition while on probation and to continue treatment, Knorr argued.
Knorr asked U.S. District Judge Gustave Diamond to consider a sentence of three months in a halfway house or community confinement center and three months on home detention. Assistant U.S. Attorney Margaret Picking argued for a sentence of 24 to 30 months — within federal guidelines — because Lloyd continues to be a danger to himself and others.
Lloyd declined to speak on his own behalf.
Anthony Mastroianni, a therapist who has been treating Lloyd for 10 years, told Diamond that Lloyd was under his treatment when he fatally shot his girlfriend, Lori Hann, 41, on Aug. 3, 2004, in Squirrel Hill.
Lloyd claimed self-defense and an Allegheny County jury acquitted him in 2006 of homicide charges but convicted him of carrying a firearm without a license. As a convicted felon, he cannot legally possess a firearm.
In April 2009, the FBI started investigating Lloyd's website because he posted a message praising Richard Poplawski. The Stanton Heights man is awaiting trial on charges he fatally shot three Pittsburgh police officers who responded to a domestic call at his home on April 4, 2009.
The investigation turned up a blog entry in which Lloyd talked about his shotgun. During a search of Lloyd's home, agents found 10 firearms as well as white supremacist literature and Nazi propaganda booklets. Lloyd was on probation from his 2006 conviction of the firearm charge. He is scheduled to be sentenced on the probation violation in September before Common Pleas Judge Lawrence J. O'Toole.
Picking said that stockpiling weapons and exhorting others to commit violence shortly after the police officers were killed show Lloyd remains a danger to himself and others.
Diamond agreed.
"He had a small arsenal of weapons of various calibers and types. He had ammo for all those weapons," the judge said.
Diamond also sentenced Lloyd to three years of probation. During his incarceration and probation, Lloyd is not allowed to host a website.
