Suspect in assault takes plea

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Hollidaysburg-area man was sentenced to at least eight months in the county prison after rendering a guilty plea Tuesday to aggravated assault in a 2020 incident where his victim was hospitalized for a head injury.

Paul Joseph Belicic III, 40, who was supposed to go on trial starting today in Blair County court, opted instead to plead guilty to the first degree felony charge for the recommended prison time, starting Nov. 20.

Assistant District Attorney Derek Elensky and defense attorney Thomas M. Dickey offered the negotiated plea to Judge Jackie Bernard, who imposed the recommended sentence of eight months to two years, minus a day.

Bernard, who was slated to preside over Belicic's jury trial this week, allowed Belicic's bail conditions to remain intact pending the Nov. 20 prison reporting date. Belicic has been free on bail since his arrest on July 22, 2020.

State police at Hollidaysburg, in court documents filed in support of the charges, indicate that Belicic, on June 29, 2020, confronted a man along Shaw Road in Frankstown Township and told him that he needed to move his backhoe. That led to an altercation in which police said Belicic charged toward the man and grabbed him, pushing him to the ground.

Police said the victim initially observed a scrape on his leg and refused medical treatment. But on June 30, 2020, police learned that the victim was in the intensive care unit at UPMC Altoona Hospital with a brain injury. While reported that day to be in stable condition, police collected additional information from medical personnel to indicate that the victim's injury resulted from striking his head when pushed to the ground and that the injury presented a life-threatening risk.

In exchange for the guilty plea to the felony offense and the prison sentence, Elensky withdrew related misdemeanor charges of simple assault and reckless endangerment.

Belicic's charges were repeatedly scheduled for review in court through 2023 when challenges to the charges were filed. It was scheduled four times this year for jury selection — in March, April, June and August — without a jury being selected and the case remaining unresolved. The jurors identified to hear the case this week were selected on Sept. 30.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.