Judge rejects request from convicted Fayette Co. drug kingpin wanting years shaved off sentence

A Fayette County drug kingpin will not receive a shortened prison sentence for ordering the 1993 killing of a man whose heart and liver were later transplanted into a dying Gov. Robert Casey.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Tim Krieger this week rejected a request from Ronald Whethers to count more than six years he served in jail prior to his no-contest plea as part of his sentence. Whethers agreed to the third-degree murder plea in 2001.

Now 60, Whethers received multiple sentences that totaled 15 to 30 years in state prison and which could run through 2031. He now is eligible for parole. Whethers, however, also is serving a concurrent federal prison term for racketeering and drug offenses. Originally sentenced to life in federal prison, the term was reduced in 2016 to 37 years — meaning he could be kept in federal custody until 2027.

Krieger ruled that Whethers’ request was untimely and should have been made immediately after he was sentenced. The sentencing orders in the state cases stated that Whethers was not given credit for time served, the judge said.

Whethers is in a medium-security federal prison in New Jersey.

He initially was jailed in January 1995, two years after William Michael Lucas was beaten to death on a Monessen street. Prosecutors said Whethers at the time operated one of the largest cocaine trafficking rings on the East Coast and directed a group of men to Lucas’ home on the false belief he had stolen drugs from the organization.

Whethers maintained he did not order Lucas to be killed, just to have the drugs returned.

Lucas’ murder gained national prominence after it was learned that his heart and liver were transplanted into Casey. Pennsylvania’s governor had been diagnosed with a rare, fatal disease called amyloidosis, an illness that that causes organ failure. Casey underwent the transplant operation in 1993 and served a second term in office. He died in 2000.