Alex Hribal's appeal rejected in Franklin Regional rampage

A Pennsylvania appeals court on Wednesday upheld the 60-year prison sentence for Alex Hribal, the Murrysville teen convicted of wounding of 20 teens and a security guard during a 2014 knife rampage at Franklin Regional High School.

A three-judge panel rejected the appeal from Hribal, 22, who claimed the sentencing judge abused his discretion when he imposed a prison sentence of 23¹⁄₂ to 60 years.

Hribal pleaded guilty to 43 counts, including multiple charges of attempted murder and aggravated assault.

Police said Hribal, then 16, brought two kitchen knives to school on April 9, 2014. He stabbed and slashed students as he moved through the hallways before finally being subdued. Hribal later claimed he had been bullied by other students.

Defense attorney Pat Thomassey argued Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Christopher Feliciani erred when he refused to transfer Hribal’s case to juvenile court, where the then teen could not be held beyond his 21st birthday.

The defense also appealed Feliciani’s ruling that barred Hribal from pleading guilty but mentally ill. The defense contended Hribal suffered from schizophrenia and depression, but the judge ruled that diagnosis did not prevent the teen from knowing right from wrong.

Hribal’s appeal also claimed Feliciani’s sentence was too long and did not account for his age at the time of the crime, as well his deteriorating mental condition.

The appellate judges ruled the six-decade sentence was warranted and upheld all of Feliciani’s rulings.

“(Hribal) was not entitled to a volume discount at sentencing merely because his crimes arose out of one criminal episode,” the judges wrote.