An eastern Pennsylvania man has pleaded no contest to having illegally provided a handgun to his mentally ill son who later shot and killed a sheriff's deputy.
Seventy-two-year-old Maurice Connor of Albany Township entered the plea Wednesday during his retrial in Northampton County Court, where the proceedings were moved following a mistrial in Berks County Court.
Jurors were on a break when Connor entered the no contest plea, in which a defendant acknowledges that prosecutors have enough evidence to convict. Other charges including illegal sale of a firearm and conspiracy were dismissed.
Prosecutors said Connor gave a handgun and $200 for a rifle to 25-year-old Matthew Connor, a convicted felon who later killed deputy sheriff Kyle Pagerly and was killed himself in a June 2011 exchange of gunfire with authorities.
Police say that Matthew Connor left a suicide note two days prior to the incident for his friends and family. Sources said that Connors wanted to die -- suicide by cop.
The incident played out when authorities paid a visit to 43 Pine Swamp Road in Albany, Pa. to serve Connors with a warrant for burglary, criminal trespass and various other offenses.
Connor’s girlfriend answered the door and while she was talking to police, her boyfriend slipped out the back and ran into the woods. Officers followed him. It was then that Connor threatened Pagerly with an AK-47. He refused to drop the gun as ordered, and a gun battle ensued, police say.
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Connor was pronounced dead on the scene. Pagerly died the next morning at Lehigh Valley Hospital.
The deputy sheriff was a Reading native who had previously served in the military. Pagerly and his wife Alecia were expecting their first child.
“Kyle was a great, great person, great family man,” Sheriff Eric Weaknecht said.
