Pa. Supreme Court upholds Alex Hribal plea, prison sentence in Franklin Regional stabbings

The state Supreme Court on Monday upheld the conviction and prison sentence for Alex B. Hribal, who was arrested as a teen in the wounding of 20 youths and a security guard during a 2014 knife attack at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville.

Hribal’s attorney, Patrick Thomassey, had argued Westmoreland County Judge Christopher Feliciani erred when he failed to transfer the case to juvenile court and claimed the sentence of 23½ to 60 years in prison was too severe. If convicted in juvenile court, Hribal, now 22, could not have been held after his 21st birthday under state law.

The state Supreme Court refused to take up the appeal in a brief one-sentence order posted on its website Monday.

“And now, the 4th Day of May, 2020, the petition for Allowance of Appeal is denied,” the order states.

In October, a three-judge state Superior Court panel rejected the appeal from Hribal, who claimed Feliciani abused his discretion when he imposed a prison sentence of up to six decades.

In 2017, Hribal pleaded guilty to 43 counts, including multiple charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault. He was sentenced by Feliciani in January 2018.

Police said Hribal, then 16, brought two kitchen knives to school on April 9, 2014. Then a sophomore, Hribal stabbed and slashed students as he moved through the hallways before finally being subdued.

Hribal later claimed he had been bullied by other students.

District Attorney John Peck said he agreed with the court’s decision.

“I thought Judge Feliciani’s sentence was fair based on the severity of the injuries and trauma inflicted on the students, teachers, administrators and school employees impacted in the Franklin Regional School District,” Peck said.

Peck noted that five students were severely injured. He said many of the impacted students, teachers and school administrators “dutifully” appeared at numerous hearings to describe their injuries and mental trauma during the four years that led to Hribal’s guilty plea.

Thomassey could not be reached for comment Monday.

The defense also appealed Feliciani’s ruling that barred Hribal from pleading guilty but mentally ill. The defense contended Hribal suffered from schizophrenia and depression, but the judge ruled that diagnosis did not prevent the teen from knowing right from wrong.

Hribal’s appeal also claimed Feliciani’s sentence was too long and did not account for his age at the time of the crime, as well his deteriorating mental condition.

The Superior Court panel wrote in a 23-page opinion the lengthy sentence was warranted and upheld all of Feliciani’s rulings.

“(Hribal) was not entitled to a volume discount at sentencing merely because his crimes arose out of one criminal episode,” the Superior Court judges wrote.

Hribal is serving his sentence at SCI Albion in Erie County, according to the state department of corrections.