Prinkey gets 7-20 years for slaying of wife's boyfriend

A Fayette County engineer integral to a Uniontown theater renovation was sentenced Wednesday to seven to 20 years in prison for the execution-style shooting of his estranged wife's ex-con boyfriend at her Connellsville apartment.

Raymond M. "Mike" Prinkey, 50, of Normalville, was convicted earlier this month of voluntary manslaughter for the Oct. 19, 2005, shooting of James Cononico, a convicted armed robber.

Only two months before the shooting, Cononico, 50, was released from the state prison in Somerset County, where he met Mike Prinkey's wife, Lori, who was working there as a unit supervisor.

Cononico moved from Ohio into Lori Prinkey's apartment in October 2005.

Cononico's mother, Jean Ciarrochi, told Judge Ralph Warman that she has no hatred for Mike Prinkey, but she hopes he experiences the pain her son felt by being locked up, away from family.

"I was so shocked that morning to learn that he lost his life not for a crime, but for a foolish affair," said Ciarrochi, of Warren, Ohio.

During the trial, Mike Prinkey said he shot Cononico because he feared that the man he had just learned was his wife's paramour might try to grab his 9 mm Ruger handgun from him.

Prosecutors contended that Prinkey waited for Cononico outside the kitchen door with a loaded gun, then ambushed the unarmed victim as he attempted to throw out the trash after 6 a.m. Cononico had his back turned as Mike Prinkey fired a bullet behind the victim's left ear.

The defendant told Cononico's family that "remorse" is not a strong enough word to describe his sorrow about the shooting.

"I know that my words are not ... do not justify, do not help your pain," he said yesterday. "I do want you to know that I'm sorry. I think about what I did every day."

Mike Prinkey's two sisters depicted him as an outgoing, family-oriented father and grandfather who became withdrawn and depressed in the summer of 2005 as his 17-year marriage was falling apart.

Fayette Engineering President Russell B. Mechling Jr. said Mike Prinkey was a valued employee who became an expert on structural design.

The defendant served as project manager for a $1.5 million renovation of the State Theatre Center for the Arts in downtown Uniontown.