Resentencing set in sexual assault
WAYNESBURG – A Carmichaels man convicted in 2012 of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, and whose sentence was overturned last year by the state Superior Court, will have to wait longer to find out how much time he’ll serve in prison.
The re-sentencing hearing for Leeland R. Barnhart Jr., 39, was continued Friday afternoon for at least 45 days to allow a pre-sentence investigation to be conducted and to give lawyers on both sides enough time to file briefs in the case.
Barnhart was convicted following a five-day trial in May 2012 of concealing the location of a 15-year-old girl and engaging in an ongoing sexual relationship with her in 2011. He was found guilty of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and aggravated indecent assault, among numerous other charges.
Former Greene County Judge William Nalitz in October of that year sentenced Barnhart to 10½ to 21 years in prison under mandatory guidelines for the involuntary deviate sexual intercourse conviction. However, the state Superior Court ruled in December 2014 that mandatory minimum sentences for sexual offenses against children were unconstitutional. It ordered last March that Barnhart be re-sentenced.
The first hearing since that ruling was Friday, and Greene County Judge Lou Dayich, who took the bench in January, was assigned the case because Nalitz retired.
Dayich said the rescheduling is because of the amount of time that passed since Barnhart’s original sentencing and a number of issues that must be resolved. The county’s probation office conducted a pre-sentence investigation four years ago, but Dayich ordered a new one should be completed because “there’s a period of time that needs to be filled in.”
“This is a little unusual in that four years have passed and we’re now back into the sentencing (phase),” Dayich said. “The court has to deal with it as if we’re dealing with it in its first sentencing.”
Greene County First Assistant District Attorney Brianna Vanata, who prosecuted the case four years ago, said Barnhart is not considered a sexually violent predator, so there is no need for him to be re-evaluated for that portion of the pre-sentencing report.
Barnhart will be held at State Correctional Institution-Greene for another week while the pre-sentencing interview is conducted. Dayich then ordered he be returned to his “home jail” at SCI-Somerset.
The new range for the involuntary deviate sexual intercourse conviction is 48 to 66 months, while the range for aggravated assault is 22 to 36 months. Barnhart has already served 54 months in jail.
“I can’t make any guarantee … what the sentence will be,” Dayich said.
The court administrator will decide when to schedule the new sentencing date.