A Greensburg man will serve probation rather than prison time for stabbing another man on Blairsville's Morewood Avenue earlier this year, after a judge ordered his sentences to run one after the other rather than at the same time. Blaze Mendicino, 27, pleaded guilty to terroristic threats and simple assault for the May 18 incident, which left his victim with a stab wound to the left arm and a cut on the left hand.
According to WCCS AM1160 & 101.1FM, Judge Gina Force ordered Mendicino's probation sentences to run consecutively, with two years of probation imposed for each count. The attack happened in the 200 block of Morewood Avenue in Blairsville, where Blairsville police said Mendicino stabbed the victim in the left arm. As reported by wdadradio.com, additional charges of aggravated assault, harassment and a second count of simple assault were not prosecuted as part of the resolution.
Drug Case Involving 22 Bricks of Suspected Fentanyl Also on the Docket
The same courthouse docket included sentencing for Joshua James Stumpf, a 41-year-old from Indiana, in a drug case stretching back more than four years. Stumpf pleaded guilty to manufacturing or possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver, stemming from a May 24, 2022 raid on his home by the Indiana County Drug Task Force, the same station's report notes.
Investigators found 22 bricks of suspected heroin or fentanyl, along with roughly $4,000 in cash, a shotgun barrel, cellphones and materials used to package and sell drugs, according to the WDAD report. Scheduling details differ between outlets: the seed reporting places Stumpf's sentencing hearing on October 19, while wdadradio.com reported he was set to appear before Judge Michael Clark today, October 20, in connection with the 2022 case. Judge Clark ultimately ordered Stumpf to serve four years of probation.
A Similar Case Playing Out in Northern Cambria
The Stumpf case echoes a separate drug prosecution out of Northern Cambria, where 64-year-old Charles Wilcox, described as a co-conspirator, pleaded guilty to the same charge of possession with intent to deliver. Wilcox was ordered to serve two to five years in a state correctional institution, according to latrobebulletinnews.com, in connection with the 2022 investigation in Indiana Borough.
Wilcox's state prison sentence stands in contrast to the probationary outcomes handed down in both the Mendicino and Stumpf cases, underscoring how differently similar drug and violence-related charges can resolve even within the same region. Court records tying the two Indiana County cases together were not provided, and no additional sentencing details beyond those reported were made available.
