A central Pennsylvania judge has declined to reduce the sentence of a man convicted of having killed his grandfather with a 12-gauge shotgun almost a decade ago.
The (Altoona) Mirror reports that a Blair County judge ruled Wednesday that 33-year-old Thomas Drass waited too long to seek review of the case.
Drass was sentenced to the maximum 20 to 40 years after pleading guilty to third-degree murder in the January 2005 death of Dwayne Chamberlain.
Drass argued that the sentence was too severe for a case that he called an accident. He said his attorney convinced him to plead guilty.
Police said the defendant's grandparents didn't want him to have a gun, but Drass bought one and went to show it to them, and it discharged.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
