Modery sentenced to life-plus in Ohio man’s murder
WASHINGTON – Judge Katherine B. Emery said she tried to find positive aspects of Gregory Modery’s life before sentencing him Friday, but there was little she could find to support granting him any sort of reduced sentence. A jury in October convicted Modery, 32, of McMurray, of first-degree murder in the kidnapping, beating and shooting death of Ohio medical consultant Ira Swearingen. The jury determined that Modery should spend his life in prison without the possibility of parole. Thursday’s sentencing hearing was three years to the day after Swearingen’s murder.
Emery on Friday confirmed the life sentence and also sentenced Modery for the remaining charges against him: conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault involving serious bodily injury and conspiracy to commit robbery, kidnapping or aggravated assault. All of the charges were first-degree felonies. Emery noted that Modery could receive a maximum sentence of life plus 80 to 160 years in prison if all of the maximum sentences were imposed consecutive to his life sentence.
The sentence Emery did impose, while not the absolute maximum Modery could have received, was still stiff. Emery sentenced Modery to life plus 15 to 50 years in prison.
The only mitigating factors Emery said she could find in the pre-sentencing report or trial transcript were the facts that Modery had no prior criminal record and that he followed the rules for inmates while he was imprisoned, other than engaging in a misleading letter-writing scheme with two co-defendants.
“You no longer stand before me as an innocent person, but as a person convicted by a jury of your peers. The crimes you are convicted of are the most heinous,” Emery said. “Mr. Swearingen was a kind, intelligent, good man.”
Emery stated that Modery had plotted with others to prey on people at the adult bookstore along I-70 at the Kammerer exit, had beaten and kidnapped Swearingen, made him strip and then drove him around in the trunk of his own rental car before he was shot to death by Alexander Martos as Modery looked on.
“You then went out for sandwiches,” Emery said. “You partied and had a good time through the benefit of Mr. Swearingen’s credit cards for the rest of the week until your luck ran out.”
Emery said it had been pointed out by the defense throughout the trial that Modery was a good father.
“Taking a child on and off a school bus is not being a father, it’s being a babysitter,” Emery said. “Your claim to be Mr. Mom is an insult to stay-at-home parents.”
Emery said that Modery’s attributes as a husband appeared to be lacking as well, according to trial testimony indicating he was out most nights and had asked for the phone numbers of women while he was out.
As for hobbies, you don’t appear to have any. You had lead-lined gloves and steel-toed boots. Those are more evidence of a sociopath,” Emery said. “You have shown no remorse.”
On the charge of conspiracy to commit murder, Emery sentenced Modery to 20 to 40 years in prison, to run concurrently with his life sentence. A five-to-10-year sentence for conspiracy to commit robbery, kidnapping or aggravated assault will also run concurrently.
Although District Attorney John Pettit had asked that at least one of Modery’s sentences run consecutive to the life sentence, Emery chose to impose three consecutive sentences on Modery.
He was sentenced to five to 15 years consecutive to the life sentence for kidnapping, five to 15 years consecutive for robbery and five to 20 years consecutive for aggravated assault involving serious bodily injury.
Modery will be granted credit for the time he has already served for the sentences that run concurrent with his life sentence.
Emery said he would be granted one contact visit with his family prior to being transferred from the Washington County Correctional Facility to the State Correctional Facility at Pittsburgh for classification.
Although Modery had remained expressionless throughout the sentencing procedure, he turned to his wife and grinned when it was over. District Attorney John Pettit said he took that as just one more example of Modery’s disregard for human life, in this case his own.
District Attorney John Pettit said he was pleased with the consecutive sentences.
“If for some reason the law is changed and he is entitled to relief from his life sentence, then he will begin his 15 to 50 years in prison,” Pettit said. “We know this individual will still be in jail for at least another 15 years and most likely much longer.”
Modery’s defense attorney, Fred Rabner, said the real legal battle is just starting for Modery.
“In cases such as these, the sentencing is not so much an ending, but a beginning for the defendant,” Rabner said.
An attorney other than Rabner will handle any appeals, however. Following the sentencing hearing Rabner asked to be excused as Modery’s attorney and conflicts counsel Joe Zupancic was appointed to represent Modery in the future. Since the Washington County Public Defender’s Office initially represented Modery’s co-defendant, Alexander Martos, that office cannot represent Modery.
Pettit said now that the Modery case is truly over, his office will concentrate on the cases against the remaining defendants in the Swearingen murder case.
Martos has already pled guilty and will be sentenced to life without parole once all of the other defendants have been brought to trial. Two other primary co-defendants, Robert Petrick and John Sebastian Shaker, have cooperated with the district attorney’s office and testified at Modery’s trial. Pettit said he doesn’t know yet whether they will enter into plea agreements or if their cases will go to trial.
Pettit said he still isn’t certain whether or not his office will pull a plea agreement struck with Debra Levandosky who had been charged with tampering with evidence and receiving stolen property. Pettit said he couldn’t say that Levandosky had cooperated as fully as the others had.