Robberies Land Swartz Behind Bars

Dustin Swartz will spend 10 to 20 years in a state prison for his involvement in two armed robberies last year that rocked Juniata County.

The former state champion wrestler pleaded guilty to numerous charges in the October robbery of the East Waterford branch of the First National Bank of Mifflintown and the November robbery of the Weis Market in Mifflintown.

Judge Kate Marrow sentenced Swartz Thursday on one count of robbery at the East Waterford bank, and numerous charges in connection with the market robbery, among them, one count of kidnapping, one count of burglary, one count of robbery and two counts of robbery of a motor vehicle. Several of the lesser charges were merged with the more severe charges.

The sentences will run concurrently. Otherwise, Swartz could have faced up to 40 years in prison on the Weis kidnapping and robbery charges alone.

Morrow issued the sentence after two hours of statements from both the victims involved in the robberies and Swartz and his family members.

Swartz’s family members tried to paint a picture of a happier, helpful Dustin, whose “smile is absolutely contagious,” according to a part of the statement made by his sister Samantha Swartz.

His sister, his father, Frank, and his mother, Melissa, all spoke of Swartz’s accomplishments as a wrestler at Juniata High School. However, Morrow was not moved. She paralleled Swartz’s local fame as a champion wrestler to out-of-control sports stars.

“Professional athletes are given the license to do things they’re not supposed to do,” she said, referencing a player-spectator brawl at an Indiana Pacers-Detroit Pistons game.

“They are given a free card sometimes,” she added. “Not in this courtroom.”

Swartz’s three family members and his attorney Justin McShane also urged Morrow for leniency on the sentence because of his prior clean record.

Once again, Morrow was not moved, calling his Oct. 19 holdup of the East Waterford bank and the Nov. 24 armed robbery of the Weis Market an “escalating path of destructive violence.”

“I don’t know what would have happened if he had not been caught,” she said.

When given his turn to speak, Swartz addressed his victims and asked for their forgiveness; he asked for his family’s continued support; and he asked the court to weigh his sentence on the whole package and not just the “heinous crimes.”

“I’ll think about them and regret them for the rest of my days,” he said.

Swartz turned himself in to authorities in late December, and gave an 87-page statement to police about the events leading up to the crimes. Morrow said his cooperation with authorities “made prosecution of this case a lot easier.”

His cooperation resulted in a guilty plea and no need for a trial, which Morrow said “would not serve any benefit” to the victims because of the numerous days of testimony and their reliving of the harrowing events.

Regardless of his cooperation, several of the charges carried minimum terms Morrow was mandated to impose. Charges involving the use of a weapon whether a toy gun, as in the East Waterford robbery, or an unloaded gun, as in the Weis robbery require a 5-year mandatory minimum sentence, she said.

As part of his statement, Frank Swartz said his son meant no harm to anyone.

The victims, however, were harmed, according to statements they made at the beginning of the proceedings. Sarah Wert’s father Bill said in his statement that his family feels re-victimized every time they see a member of the Swartz family.

In addition, Bill Wert stated his daughter keeps a can of Mace and a cell phone nearby when she sleeps.

“You scarred my daughter for life,” his statement, directed at Swartz, said.

Sarah Wert’s manager at Weis, Linda Hartman, made a similar statement. She said got a call from Wert the night of robbery, in which Swartz and his codefendant Tommy Adler forced Wert to unlock the safe.

“Sarah didn’t ask for anything and a got a life sentence of fear,” Hartman said.

In a prepared statement, Wert described the events of the night and how she was taken to the safe by Swartz and Adler.

“To this day,” Wert said in her detailed statement, “when I walk down aisle 5 or 11 or by the meat case, I have flashbacks of that night.”

Carolyn and Richard Ney, whose vehicle was held up by Swartz and Adler after they fled from the Weis, also prepared a statement about their fear resulting from the crime.

Swartz is on detainer for crimes in Mifflin and Franklin County. As part of Morrow’s order, she said the Juniata County Sheriff’s Department will not need to provide transportation to the state prison in Camp Hill for processing, as one of the other county’s will do so.

In the order, Morrow gave Swartz credit for time he has spent in the Juniata County prison: one day in December and the time from Jan. 4 to the present.

Swartz will pay upwards of $10,000 in restitution and several $5,000 fines related to the major charges, such as robbery and kidnapping.

Swartz was the first of the five people charged to be sentenced. The others, Adler, Michael Bryan, Douglas Foose and Allison Smith await making pleas and sentencing.

Attorney McShane acknowledged that residents in the county want to know why the crime happened. McShane and Swartz’s sister said the motives in the crime were not drug-related.

“He maintains he does not use drugs,” McShane said.