Pennsylvania man pleads guilty in stabbing death of neighbor following long dispute over loud snoring, authorities said.
A suburban Philadelphia man has pleaded guilty in the stabbing death of his neighbor following a longstanding feud over loud snoring, authorities said.
Christopher Casey, 56 pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter last week, according to court records.
In exchange, prosecutors dropped a count of third-degree murder originally filed against the man in January, following the killing of 62-year-old Robert Wallace.
Wallace lived on the other side of a wall bisecting the duplex where both men lived and police had responded numerous times to calls about a dispute over Casey's loud snoring, authorities said.
Casey also pleaded guilty last week to possession of an instrument of crime. According to police, he used a military-style knife to stab his neighbor after the latter pulled a screen from his window and they argued about Casey's snoring, which could be heard through the duplex's common wall.
In exchange for those pleas, Casey was sentenced to 11.5 to 23 months in prison, a judge ruled. He apologized in court to the victim's family, saying the circumstances of the killing were “unfortunate.”
With credit for time served, Casey will be released within 30 days, according to his defense attorney. He has been held in lieu of $1 million bail since his arrest in January.
Casey's life had been threatened many times by his upset neighbor, said lawyer James Lyons. His client was "a really good man who was not equipped to deal with this type of this sustained abuse and threats," Lyons said in court last week.
“He was terrified of this guy, and he believed that he had no option,” Casey's attorney said. He also said his client was autistic and had trouble dealing with confrontations.
The victim's family told the court before sentencing that Casey's snoring was so loud and so prolonged that Wallace suffered from sleep deprivation that affected his life and his work.
Related Stories
