Aug 18, 2016 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – A Waynesburg man, who in April was convicted in absentia of burglarizing a home in 2014, was sentenced Thursday to 26 months to six years in state prison.

Greene County Judge Lou Dayich sentenced Price A. Gipe, 31, of 297 E. Greene St., on the six charges the jury found him guilty of which included burglary, theft, criminal mischief, manufacturing a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Those charges stem from a June 29, 2014, burglary in which Gipe and his friend Joshua Brewer, of Waynesburg, ransacked an apartment a block from Gipe’s residence. According to the criminal complaint, $600 worth of property was either stolen or damaged.

When police later searched Gipe’s apartment, they found 17 marijuana plants, fans, grow lights and instructions for how to grow it, court documents indicate. Gipe was also sentenced Thursday for an intimidating a witness charge, stemming from a case that was filed against him in February, just before his March trial.

According to the criminal complaint, Gipe met his ex-wife, Shannon Gipe, in the Walmart parking lot in Franklin Township to try to convince her to give a false testimony at his trial. Shannon Gipe, who is Joshua Brewer’s sister, told police Gipe asked her to say that her Brewer had confided in her and told her that Gipe hadn’t entered the building during the burglary.

In exchange for the false testimony, Shannon Gipe told police Gipe offered to sign over his parental rights to her and he allegedly threatened to sign those rights over to his aunt if Shannon Gipe did not agree.

Gipe didn’t show up for his jury trial March 30, but he was picked up by police in South Carolina in June.

Gipe plead “no contest” to the intimidation charge Thursday before he was sentenced. He testified to Dayich of his 13-year battle with opiate addiction.

“I just wish I could’ve handled all of it better for my wife and my children,” he said.

He talked about staying sober while he lived in Philadelphia in 2010, but how he relapsed when he moved back to Waynesburg.

“It was easier out there because I didn’t know anyone,” he said. “it was so big out there, you never saw the same person twice.”

He told the court that he had been to jail and been to rehab in the past, but he still relapsed. He said his most recent relapse when he skipped town was the worst he had ever experienced.

“I relapsed bad,” he said. “I didn’t care anymore. I knew I was going to prison anyways.”

District Attorney Marjorie Fox asked Gipe if there was anything or anyone besides himself that could bring an end to his addiction. Gipe responded by saying that he didn’t think jail would help. “The jail don’t make people better,” he said.

Fox then asked Gipe if he was going to “grow up and stop blaming other people?”

Along with the incarceration period, Dayich ordered Gipe to pay a $500 fine and $599 restitution to the victim of the burglary. Gipe was given credit for time served in jail since June 8.