Man pleads guilty to firing gunshots at vehicle outside North Strabane bar
A man accused of firing multiple gunshots at three people inside a vehicle after getting into a fight with an off-duty sheriff’s deputy at a North Strabane bar in December pleaded guilty just as he was set to go to trial for attempted homicide.
Dee “DJ” Frazee Jr., 27, of North Strabane, pleaded guilty in Washington County Court to three felony counts of aggravated assault in connection with the gunshots he fired at the occupied vehicle outside of Frankie I’s restaurant during its New Year’s Eve festivities.
The court was in the process of picking a jury for his trial Tuesday morning when Frazee agreed to the plea deal with prosecutors. Judge Brandon Neuman accepted the plea and sentenced Frazee to serve 4 to 8 years in a state prison.
Frazee was accused by North Strabane police of getting into a fight with Joseph Joscsak, an off-duty Washington County sheriff’s deputy, inside the restaurant along Route 19 before it spilled out into the parking lot as the two men tussled. Joscsak testified at Frazee’s preliminary hearing in January that he tried to leave with two friends in an SUV when five or six bullets struck the vehicle, causing one passenger to get hit by shrapnel. That person suffered minor injuries, but no one else was struck.
North Strabane police arrested Frazee three days later, although investigators never located the handgun used in the incident.
“I think North Strabane police did a fantastic job and we got a resolution,” Washington County District Attorney Jason Walsh said about the plea.
Frazee also pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor charge of terroristic threats after South Strabane police said he pulled a gun on a person in the Home Depot parking lot near Murtland Avenue following an argument Dec. 1.
Prosecutors dropped three counts of attempted homicide against Frazee in the Frankie I’s case in exchange for the plea. His defense attorney, Michael Santicola, said that spurred Frazee to take the plea deal.
“Ultimately, with the seriousness of the lead charges that were obviously withdrawn and the time he has (been jailed) with the two cases, it motivated us that this was the best resolution, and that’s what he decided to do,” Santicola said.
Frazee has been jailed without bond since his Jan. 3 arrest in the Frankie I’s case, and he will be given credit for time served.