Lengthy Sentence in Mill Hall Shooting Case
LOCK HAVEN — A Mill Hall man has been sentenced to 14 and a half to 29 years for his role in an August 2016 shooting incident on Main Street in Mill Hall.
Judge Michael Salisbury on Monday imposed the sentence on Joseph Newman Jr., 44. A Clinton County Court jury in August had returned a guilty verdict on multiple charges against Newman in the nighttime shooting incident: aggravated assault, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, carrying firearms without a license, simple assault, simple assault by physical menace and person not to possess a weapon.
Clinton County District Attorney Dave Strouse prosecuted the case. At Monday’s sentencing hearing he argued before Judge Salisbury for a 17 year minimum sentence, calling Newman “unfit” to be in society. Strouse said Newman had endangered the lives of not just the victim but “every person that lives in Mill Hall” when he fired a gun in the 300 block of Main Street.
Newman was represented by Columbia County attorney Hugh Taylor who asked the court to give his client a sentence of “less than a decade,” to give him some kind of life upon release from prison.
Judge Salisbury pointed to Newman’s poor history on parole and probation supervision in the past, the violent nature of the Mill Hall offenses and the fact Newman is a convicted felon prohibited from possession of a firearm as reasons for the extended sentence.
Newman, addressing the court, said “I’m not the man that Strouse tries to make me out to be.”
State police had arrested Newman after the August 2016 incident. Newman and Michael Jason Bingaman of Mill Hall both had been taken into custody after Gary Allen Lucas of Flemington told them Newman pointed a gun at him and told him “he was going to end it tonight.” Police at the time said Newman was subdued after two shots were fired at Lucas.
The altercation was part of a confrontation on Main Street in Mill Hall on Aug. 22 of last year. Lucas, according to testimony, was a member of the Outsider’s Motorcycle Club while Newman was a former member.
Bingaman has his trial pending.
