Man pleads guilty to assault in shooting of Dover Area High School student Emily Shoemaker
Common Pleas Judge Harry M. Ness will determine the punishment for Sterling Frantz, 23, of York, at sentencing on June 28.
Dylan SegelbaumA man pleaded guilty on Tuesday to aggravated assault with no agreement in place on the sentence for acting as an accomplice in the deadly shooting of Dover Area High School senior Emily Shoemaker.
Sterling Frantz, 23, of York, started a chain of events that led to her death when he told his supplier, DaiQuan Dickerson, that he’d been robbed of a half-ounce of marijuana on Dec. 12, 2019. Prosecutors agreed to drop charges of first- and third-degree murder and criminal conspiracy to commit first-degree murder.
Common Pleas Judge Harry M. Ness will determine the punishment for the crime at sentencing on June 28.
The sentencing guidelines call for a penalty that begins at 3 1/2 to seven years in prison. Frantz faces a maximum sentence of 10 to 20 years.
Frantz cooperated with the commonwealth and testified against Dickerson, 20, of Red Lion, who was found guilty in March of first-degree murder and faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole. He’s scheduled to appear back in court on May 27.
During the trial, Frantz testified that Shoemaker had reached out to him over Snapchat to buy a half-ounce of weed for $100 or $120.
Shoemaker and two of her friends — Tyrese Dugan and Fuhrman Dennis — robbed him outside his apartment on North Newberry Street across from Farquhar Park in York when he got into the front-passenger seat of her lime 2007 Kia Soul.
Frantz testified that he then told Dickerson what happened.
Dickerson, he said, asked him, “Hey, do you want to go for a drive and smoke?"
Later, Frantz testified, Dickerson spotted Shoemaker’s SUV, drove into the opposing lane and fired at 9mm handgun near the intersection of South Beaver Street and West College Avenue in York.
Shoemaker crashed into a tree on West College Avenue near Cookes House Lane in York and was pronounced dead of multiple gunshot wounds at York Hospital. She was 17.
Dugan was also shot but survived.
Related:Remembering Emily Shoemaker, Dover Area High School senior killed in shooting
Outside the courtroom, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kara Bowser and Bill Graff, Frantz’s attorney, declined to comment before sentencing.
Frantz is being held without bail in York County Prison.
Also of interest:Dover Area High School senior Emily Shoemaker laid to rest, remembered for passion and love of life
Dylan Segelbaum is the courthouse reporter at the York Daily Record, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK. Contact him at dsegelbaum@ydr.com, by phone at 717-916-3981 or on Twitter @dylan_segelbaum.
Woman pleads guilty to obstructing law enforcement in murder of Dover Area High School senior Emily Shoemaker
Caylah Webb, 23, formerly of Lancaster, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to obstructing the administration of law or other governmental function for a sentence of guilt without further punishment.
On Dec. 12, 2019, Webb was dating DaiQuan Dickerson, who shot and killed Emily Shoemaker, a senior at Dover Area High School. She was 17.
Dickerson, 20, of Red Lion, used her gray 2016 Nissan Altima in the shooting.
Webb later left the car at her friend’s home in East Lampeter Township, Lancaster County, according to trial testimony. She refused to tell law enforcement where she’d ditched the vehicle.
Chief Deputy Prosecutor Kara Bowser noted that the sentencing guidelines for the crime called for probation.
Webb, she said, was incarcerated for more than five months. She’s also spent about two years on supervised bail without any problems.
Neither Webb nor her attorney, Chief Public Defender Bruce Blocher, made a statement before Common Pleas Judge Harry M. Ness accepted the plea agreement and handed down the sentence.