CRIME

Man gets 5-10 years for shooting over $30 debt

Fahim Sanders, 31, of York, pleaded no contest to attempted criminal homicide.

Dylan Segelbaum
dsegelbaum@ydr.com

A man was sentenced on Friday to serve five to 10 years in prison for shooting his former roommate during an argument about a $30 debt near Penn Market in York.

Fahim Sanders, 31, of York, pleaded no contest to attempted criminal homicide. That means he did not admit guilt, but instead acknowledged that the prosecution had enough evidence to get a conviction.

On June 21, 2014, Marciele Haley, Melissa Morehart and Dayle Phillips were walking together when they ran into Sanders at the intersection of West Market and South Penn streets. Haley and Morehart used to be roommates with him, York City police said.

Morehart reminded Sanders that he owed them $30.

That made him angry. So Sanders pulled out a gun and fired, hitting Haley in the back, police said.

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Following his arrest, Sanders was “fixated on his possession by a devil" and reportedly asked for an exorcism, according to court documents. He was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia.

Kevin Hoffman, Sanders’ attorney, said he was confident his client now understood what was happening in court — unlike in the past.

At one point, Common Pleas Judge Maria Musti Cook asked why Sanders was pleading no contest to the crime.

Sanders believed that "the individual was trying to harm him," Hoffman said. But after reviewing surveillance video, he determined that defense would "not hold up in court."

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It’s unclear what the debt was over. Both Hoffman and Senior Deputy Prosecutor Duane Ramseur, who handled the case, declined to be interviewed outside the courtroom.

Under a plea agreement, the prosecution dropped the other charges that Sanders had been facing in the case. He will get credit for the more than two years that he’s been in jail.

Contact Dylan Segelbaum at 771-2102.