7 Years for Shooting Man Who Looked at ‘Hot Girlfriend'

An Allentown man has been ordered to spend at least seven years in prison for shooting another man because the victim looked at his “very hot girlfriend.”

Twenty-two-year-old Joel Ciprian was ordered Thursday to spend up to 15 years in prison for the September shooting of 45-year-old John Stewart, reports the Morning Call.

Stewart spent nearly three weeks in the hospital, and needed a colostomy bag for two months, after being shot twice outside an Allentown bar.

Authorities say Ciprian told investigators that he began yelling at Stewart outside Woody’s Bar on Liberty Street in Allentown because he thought the man was checking out his girlfriend.

Stewart said that he was at the bar with his ex-girlfriend and her adult son until about 1:45 a.m. As he got into his car to leave, Ciprian called him fat and asked, “Are you looking at my girl?” When Stewart got back out of the car, Ciprian shot him twice, reports the Morning Call.

At his sentencing, Ciprian called the shooting accidental but Lehigh County Judge Robert Steinberg asked how that could be, since Steward was shot twice.

Ciprian said he meant to fire the shots into the air.