Man who stabbed cousin to death gets reduction in sentence

An Allegheny County Common Pleas judge on Wednesday reduced the sentence for a man convicted of stabbing his cousin to death.

Emmanual Jones, who was originally ordered to serve 8 1/2 to 17 years in prison will now serve seven to 14 years.

Judge Kevin G. Sasinoski handed down the reduced sentence after defense attorney James Sheets filed a motion to reconsider sentence.

On Sept. 7, Jones appeared for sentencing after pleading guilty months earlier to third-degree murder for killing Brian Devante Jameel Clay.

The two men were at a house on Penn Avenue in Wilkinsburg on April 8, 2021, following a first-birthday party for Jones’ daughter.

Afterward, Jones got in an argument with his girlfriend. He became upset, grabbed the knife used to cut the birthday cake and told Clay “‘he did not want to be here and he was going to stab himself,’” Jones told the police.

Clay tried to get his cousin to put the knife down, and then tried to take it from him.

Instead, Jones stabbed him in the chest.

At the original sentencing hearing, Jones and family members spoke about how the crime has torn their family apart. In his motion to reconsider, Sheets asked Sasinsoski to give more weight in his decision at Jones’ amenability for rehabilitation and for the life he led up until the crime.

Jones, now 27, was in trade school and working at the time and had a minimal criminal record, Sheets said. He has mental health issues, but when he is in treatment, they are controlled.

During his incarceration pending trial, Jones took anger management classes, Sheets said.

Assistant District Attorney Nicole Onda told the judge that she was opposed to any reduction. Once Sasinoski imposed the new sentence, Onda objected, too, that it was below the recommended advisory guideline sentence.