A Pennsylvania man will serve time after stabbing his neighbor to death following a dispute over loud snoring.
Christopher Casey was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11.5 to 23 months in county jail followed by three years' probation after pleading guilty to a manslaughter charge and possession of an instrument of crime. The 56-year-old was originally charged with third-degree murder in the January 14 death of 62-year-old Robert Wallace, who lived next door in a duplex and with whom he shared a common wall.
Prosecutors said Casey stabbed Wallace after the neighbor pushed in his first-floor window and threatened to kill him over his snoring. Relatives of the victim said he had been unable to sleep due to the noise and his fatigue had affected his life and ability to work.
Casey apologized to them in court, calling the fatal argument "unfortunate". Defense attorney James Lyons said his client’s life had been threatened multiple times and he was “a really good man who was not equipped to deal with this type of sustained abuse and threats.”
According to a news release from the Montgomery County District Attorney’s Office after the incident, officers from Upper Moreland Township Police rushed to Casey's residence at 301 Fitch Road in the Hatboro section of Upper Moreland Township after receiving a 911 call at 6.34pm on Sunday, January 15. The police found Wallace, who had suffered stab wounds, about 50 feet from the residence.
The victim was taken to Abington Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7.06pm that day. Casey was also transported to the same hospital, where he was treated for a stab wound to his right thigh. Officers said they found a "military-style knife" and a cell phone on the front porch of Casey's home.
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They also found a window screen that had been removed from a window by the front door in a nearby grassy area. The police said Casey and Wallace were known to them due to ongoing arguments, including about the attacker's loud snoring, which the victim could hear through the shared wall of the two residences.
The police report said: "In this incident, Wallace showed up at Casey’s residence while Casey was eating dinner and removed the screen from the defendant’s window, which was accessible from the porch. Following a verbal altercation between the two men, Casey used a large, military-style knife to stab Wallace several times. Police found blood both inside and outside of the residence."
After conducting an autopsy on Wallace's body, Forensic Pathologist Dr. Ian Hood determined that the cause of death was multiple stab wounds and that the manner of death was homicide. Casey was arrested on January 18 and charged.
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