CLEARFIELD – Yesterday at the Clearfield County Courthouse, a jury deliberated for approximately two hours and returned with a guilty verdict on all charges against Randy J. Pfab, 26, of Butler, who was accused of assaulting two women and stealing a vehicle while he was drunk.
Pfab was found guilty of robbery of motor vehicle, unauthorized use of motor vehicle, driving under the influence of alcohol and two counts of simple assault. His charges stem from an incident that occurred back on Sept. 9, 2012 in Treasure Lake.
Pfab, according to District Attorney William A. Shaw Jr., is facing a minimum of 12 months of incarceration for the robbery charge alone, and it’ll be up to the judge so far as setting a maximum sentence. In addition, he said it’ll be up to the judge to determine if Pfab will face additional penalties for the other charges and if they will run concurrently or consecutively.
During the trial, the first victim told jurors she was waitressing Sept. 9, 2012 at the Treasure Lake Ski Lodge. Around 2 a.m., Pfab entered the ski lodge covered in blood. He was staggering and had slurred speech. She took him to the service station and put gauze over his nose and to clean him up. She said Pfab’s nose wouldn’t stop bleeding and he didn’t want to seek further medical attention. When she asked what had happened, Pfab told her “bits and pieces” about being beaten up and having his vehicle stolen.
The victim said Pfab asked to go home, and she felt he was too intoxicated to drive. She offered to take him to where he was staying on Harbor View Road within Treasure Lake. She initially planned to take him alone; however, another waitress, the second victim, was told to go with her, and the three of them proceeded to her Jeep Liberty.
She said she and the second victim sat up front, while Pfab sat in the back on the driver’s side. They were engaging in small talk and asking Pfab how he’d been injured when he started acting weird. She said Pfab told her she was driving too slow, then driving too fast and to get out and let him drive. She told him she owned the vehicle, which the second victim tried to explain to him as well.
At that point, the victim said Pfab grabbed her from behind and started to punch her in the back of the head with a closed fist. When she turned her head, he began striking her face area. The victim put her vehicle in park while he was still punching her. She said the second victim began pulling her out the passenger’s side door, which is when Pfab jumped over into the driver’s seat.
The victim said she was trying to get her keys from the ignition while struggling with Pfab. After she and the second victim were out of the vehicle, they were running when Pfab tackled her and began punching her back. She rolled over to defend herself while he continued punching her. She said Pfab took her keys and fled in her Jeep without her permission.
As a result of the attack, the victim told jurors that she sustained cuts about her face. She was also bleeding from her nose, ears and lips. The victim said she eventually met emergency personnel at the front gate and was transported by ambulance for medical treatment. She was given Motrin for the pain and swelling.
The victim estimated that Pfab struck her at least 20 times total during the attack. She said that Pfab was also calling her “inappropriate names.”
The second victim testified next and offered a similar account of the incident. She was cleaning up around 2 a.m. at the ski lodge when Pfab came in. When he walked by her, she noticed he was bleeding and appeared to be intoxicated. She said the first victim took him to the service station to clean him up.
She said Pfab told them he’d been beaten up and someone stole his vehicle. He identified himself as “Randy” and indicated he was staying on Harbor View Road. She said the first victim offered to take him there, and she was asked to go with her. She said Pfab was initially fine and thanked them for helping him, but then he “started to flip out” and called them “inappropriate names.”
At that point, she said Pfab grabbed the first victim from behind and started to punch her while she was driving. After the Jeep was put in park, she said their personal items fell onto the floor, and she opened the door and began to pull the first victim toward the passenger’s side door. She said while the first victim was trying to get her keys, Pfab was coming over the seat to the driver’s side area and punching her.
The second victim said she reached for her phone to call 911, and Pfab punched her in the back of the head. While on the phone with 911, she heard the first victim screaming for help. She said the first victim had blood gushing from her nose and down her face. The second victim tried to close the door on Pfab once they both had escaped with the keys. However, Pfab was too strong, got out and chased after them.
She said Pfab tackled the first victim and was on top of her, and she attempted to pull him off. She described it as a “big struggle,” which ended when Pfab got the keys and took off in the Jeep. She estimated that Pfab struck the first victim at least 10-15 times and her about five or six times.
The second victim said she called back 911 and was advised police were en route to the scene. She said they walked to New Providence Beach and met with police.
On the night of the incident, the second victim said she didn’t feel the need for medical treatment, but she went later due to a minor concussion and a black eye. She said she suffered headaches for days after the attack.
At approximately 2:30 a.m. Sept. 9, 2012, Officers Eric Rupp and Gregory Gornati of the Sandy Township police responded to a disturbance/assault in the Bay Road area of Treasure Lake. Rupp said the 911 dispatcher wasn’t certain about the nature of the incident, as the caller was screaming and crying.
Rupp said while en route to the victims, he observed personal items, which were typical belongings of a waitress, at the intersection of Harbor View and Ports Mouth roads. He notified Gornati of his findings, which to him appeared to be out of place.
Gornati said he stopped to collect the personal items that Rupp had notified him of. He said it included a waitress’ belt, cash in five-dollar and one-dollar denominations, order booklets and other miscellaneous items.
Rupp said he met with both victims at New Providence Beach and described them as “distraught, hysterical and crying.” He said the first victim was cupping her hand to catch the blood that was pouring from her nose and the second victim had contusions on her face.
Rupp said he was en route to the front gate to meet emergency personnel when a separate call occurred for a motor vehicle accident. He said one fireman had learned the description of the Jeep Liberty and alerted it had traveled at a high rate of speed through the area of the accident on Bay Road.
Rupp said when the Jeep passed him traveling in the opposite direction he did a U-turn after the first victim said, “That’s my vehicle.” He said Gornati ended up behind him, and they activated their lights and sirens and initiated a traffic stop. Rupp and Gornati said they approached the Jeep and observed a male who at first ignored commands to exit the vehicle before unlocking the driver’s side door. They had to remove him from the vehicle.
Rupp and Gornati said it appeared the male who they identified as Pfab had been involved in some sort of physical struggle. Both could smell an odor of alcohol coming from Pfab. Gornati said Pfab had slurred speech and staggered while being escorted to the police vehicle.
Gornati said he noticed a cut on Pfab’s nose, which wasn’t bandaged at the time of his apprehension. He transported Pfab to the hospital for a legal blood draw, which Pfab refused to submit to.
After the commonwealth rested its case, defense attorney Ron Collins presented a series of character witnesses who testified that Pfab was known as a “peaceful” and “honest” person whose personality didn’t change when he was under the influence of alcohol. Of those character witnesses, two spent time with Pfab most of the day on Sept. 9, 2012.
Family friend Robert Snyder said at 10:30 a.m., Pfab was among a group of eight guys who he’d invited up to stay at his summer home for a golf outing at Treasure Lake. Due to rainy weather, Snyder said they didn’t get to play until 3 p.m., and they were sitting around his place drinking beer, including Pfab. Snyder thought someone might have passed shots around.
When they went to golf, he said they only played nine holes over the course of four hours. He said they were drinking beer while golfing and again upon returning to his place for a fish fry. Later that night, he said they went to the ski lodge for a live band and Pfab rode there with his friend, Craig Handlovic.
Snyder watched Pfab drinking beer and doing shots while they were at the ski lodge. He said Pfab was also stumbling around while on the dance floor and wouldn’t have been in any condition to drive and he would have forcibly stopped him from driving.
However, he said Pfab went missing all of a sudden around 12:30 a.m., and he hadn’t observed him leaving with anyone. He said his group went to a private party around 1 a.m., and Pfab’s brother and Handlovic had attempted to call him without any success. He said they later returned to the ski lodge around close and couldn’t locate Pfab.
Handlovic said he’d also spent most the day on Sept. 9, 2012 with Pfab but provided a differing account. He was with Pfab at approximately 10:30 a.m. at Snyder’s place, where they were only drinking beer. Handlovic said they played 18 holes of golf and started at around 12-12:30 p.m. and drank more beer while playing.
Upon returning to Snyder’s, Handlovic said he might have had one beer before taking a nap. When he woke up, they went to the ski lodge, and Pfab rode with him. He admitted that he wouldn’t have allowed Pfab to drive his vehicle, as Pfab had more to drink than him. Handlovic said he couldn’t remember whether or not Pfab was doing shots at the ski lodge before he went missing.
He said Pfab disappeared around 12:30 a.m. He wasn’t sure where Pfab had gone or whom he was with. He said he didn’t see Pfab again that night.
Pfab took the stand in his own defense. He said on Sept. 9, 2012, he went to Snyder’s and drove himself in his brother’s truck, a Dodge Dakota. After settling in, Pfab said he started drinking beer at 11:30 a.m. until they went golfing at 2:30-3 p.m. and estimated he had five beers.
Pfab said due to the rain, they only played nine holes of golf and they’d taken beer with them to the golf course. He admitted that he had a “buzz” while he was golfing and went back to Snyder’s, where he consumed more beer and did shots of Tequila. Pfab said around 9 p.m., they decided to go to the ski lodge and he rode there with Handlovic. He said at the ski lodge, he was drinking beer and mingling at which point his memory of the night begins to “fade out.”
Pfab said he was dancing with girls and went outside with them, and they knew other people in the parking lot area. At some point, he said he was involved in a physical altercation with someone in the group. He couldn’t remember who or why but said he got away and went back into the ski lodge injured to look for his friends. He didn’t recall getting assistance from anyone inside.
When asked, Pfab said he didn’t know the victims in the case and didn’t have any reason to harm them. While in the Jeep with the victims, he recalled thinking they were stealing his vehicle and he needed to get control. Pfab said he wasn’t trying to intentionally take the Jeep and claimed he’d mistaken it for his brother’s Dodge Dakota truck.
Pfab didn’t dispute that he physically assaulted the victims and injured them. He also didn’t dispute that he was too intoxicated to carefully operate a motor vehicle.
In his closing, Collins said it was a “sad case” with “unusual circumstances” with a young man who had never been in trouble. He said Pfab mistakenly believed the victims had stolen his vehicle and he was neither trying to intentionally steal the Jeep nor harm them.
He said Shaw was trying to blame the entire incident on Pfab’s drinking when there was more to it than that. He said Pfab wasn’t known as a bully and to cause problems and obviously something “unusual” happened to him before the situation occurred with the victims.
“He was injured. He was bleeding. You don’t get bleeding from drinking,” said Collins. He suggested to the jury that Pfab had sustained head trauma during an earlier physical altercation with someone. “There’s something more to it than alcohol for such a sudden change [in his personality].”
Collins asked the jury to be fair to everyone involved in the case, because Pfab’s life depended on it.
Shaw argued that Collins was relying on jurors to believe Pfab had acted out of character. He pointed out that those witnesses gave different variations of the events of Sept. 9, 2012 and contended their memories were tarnished by alcohol.
He argued that just because Pfab says it, doesn’t make it so. He said Pfab claimed he’d been in a physical altercation but didn’t present any evidence to prove it. He said all kinds of things could have happened to Pfab earlier that night and by his own admission he cannot remember what actually did.
At the same time, Shaw said there was undisputed evidence showing Pfab had beaten the victims about their head and face and took the Jeep without permission. He said Pfab admitted that he couldn’t safely drive due to his level of intoxication. Shaw accused Pfab of coming into court and asking not to be held responsible.
“Voluntary intoxication is not a defense for a charge,” said Shaw. “. . . Just because he was too drunk, doesn’t mean he can come in here and say ‘I’m sorry. I was drunk.’ This isn’t ‘I’m sorry’ type of stuff. This is big business here.”
Shaw dismissed that it was reasonable to believe that Pfab had mistaken a four-door Jeep Liberty for a smaller two-door Dodge Dakota truck. He said Pfab was drunk and doesn’t get the benefit of claiming “mistake.”
Jurors entered deliberations at 4:27 p.m. and finished at 6:39 p.m. During their deliberations, jurors had one question at 4:50 p.m., which involved the robbery and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle charges and the defense of “reasonable mistake.” Jurors asked for the written instructions; however Clearfield County President Judge Fredric J. Ammerman said that by law, he wasn’t permitted to do so. He re-read the jury instructions.
Shaw said he was proud of the jury for making its decision and for not allowing “sympathy” to interfere with applying the facts of the case with law. He realized jurors were probably uncomfortable making it given Pfab’s young age.
“It just maintains faith and confidence in the jury system,” he said.
Shaw said the verdict wasn’t the result of one critical piece of evidence during the trial, but the culmination of it all put together. He felt the victims’ testimony was credible and solidified by the photographic evidence. Shaw also credited Sandy Township police who quickly located the victims and then Pfab “red-handed.”
When asked, Collins said he and Pfab will enter the sentencing phase before deciding whether or not to file an appeal.