A former state police officer from New Derry was convicted Tuesday of falsifying official documents when he attempted to buy back his service weapons.

Prosecutors said Chad Corbett, 40, misrepresented his criminal record on March 6, 2018, when he tried to take back ownership of his guns at the Army-Navy Store in Latrobe and, in doing so, purposefully lied on documents required as part of a mandated background check.

A Westmoreland County jury deliberated two hours before returning with a guilty verdict to a felony charge of making a false statement and a misdemeanor count of false statements to authorities.

Corbett declined comment as he left the courtroom on Tuesday.

The felony conviction could result in a maximum prison sentence of up to 20 years, but Corbett likely will receive a probation sentence, according to Assistant District Attorney Mike Pacek. Common Pleas Court Judge Tim Krieger said he will sentence Corbett in about three months.

During the two-day trial, Corbett maintained he simply made a mistake when he failed to disclose pending felony charges related to allegations he physically and sexually assaulted a woman in September 2017. Those counts were eventually dismissed on March 23, 2018, more than two weeks after the alleged falsification incident, as part of a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to one summary harassment count and paid a $300 fine.

That plea deal originally was expected to be finalized a month earlier, and Corbett, during more than an hour of testimony on Tuesday, said he believed the case against him was over when he submitted the paperwork to reclaim the guns he said he used during the 11 years he worked as a state police officer.

“I carried those guns on duty and they were the reasons I could go home every day,” Corbett testified. He told jurors he wanted to retrieve the weapons to give to his children for sentimental reasons.

Corbett told jurors he is a U.S. Army veteran who was twice deployed to serve as a military policeman in Bosnia and Iraq. He said his career with the state police ended after his 2017 arrest when he was required to retire with a medical disability related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Testifying with an emotional support dog on his lap, Corbett said he wasn’t diagnosed with the disorder until after his arrest on assault charges and became aware that he still struggled with the memories of a shooting incident from 2013. Corbett told jurors that, while working as a police officer, he fatally shot a suspect while responding to a domestic abuse call in Indiana County. He said he was confronted by an armed man who pointed a gun at police and refused to lower the weapon. Authorities ruled the shooting was justified, Corbett said.

In his closing argument to the jury, Pacek dismissed Corbett’s personal history as an excuse for lying on official documents.

“There’s no evidence of PTSD. It’s just a ploy to get you to feel sorry for him. He went into the Army-Navy Store thinking he’s above the law,” Pacek said.

Defense attorney Fran Murrman said Corbett simply made a mistake and that, after his guilty plea to lesser charges in 2018, he passed a background check and has since been able to take possession of his guns.

“If this doesn’t sit well in your gut that’s all you need, that’s hesitation. The commonwealth hasn’t proven its case,” Murrman said.

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