Prinkey sentenced in homicide case
Raymond “Mike” Prinkey of Normalville was sentenced Wednesday to seven to 20 years in a state prison for the October 2005 shooting death of his estranged wife’s boyfriend, James Cononico. Fayette County Judge Ralph C. Warman ordered the sentence after Prinkey, 50, apologized to the victim’s family and Cononico’s mother told the court that Prinkey deserved jail time for killing her son over a “foolish affair.”
Cononico, 50, and Lori Prinkey met while he was serving a prison sentence for an armed robbery in the State Correctional Institution at Somerset, where she worked as a unit manager, and they began seeing each other after he was released in August 2005.
Raymond Prinkey found out about the affair and shot Cononico in the head with a handgun in his wife’s apartment on East Washington Avenue in Connellsville at 6 a.m. on Oct. 19, according to testimony from his trial. Prinkey’s wife was present when the shooting took place.
Following a weeklong trial, a jury convicted Prinkey of voluntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony, on May 11.
Warman said normal state sentencing guidelines called for a prison term of 24 to 66 months.
However, a five-year minimum sentence was mandatory and a “deadly weapon enhancement” was added to the sentencing range because Prinkey used a gun, Warman said.
The deadly weapon enhancement pushed the sentencing range to 42 to 84 months, he said.
Warman said Prinkey’s wife being present during the shooting was part of the reason for imposing the sentence. He said he could have sentenced him to 20 years in prison.
“This is the ultimate crime, taking another person’s life,” Warman said. “A lesser sentence would depreciate the seriousness of the crime.”
He gave Prinkey credit for about four months of prison time he already has served.
Warman also ordered Prinkey to pay a $5,000 fine and $14,475 in restitution for funeral and medical bills to Cononico’s family.
Prinkey can appeal the sentence.
Cononico’s mother, Jean Ciarrochi of Warren, Ohio, addressed Raymond Prinkey and the court before the sentenced was ordered.
“Mr. Prinkey, I don’t know why you took my son’s life… If you felt anger and rage, you should have got help,” Ciarrochi said.
She said her son was convicted of a crime, but he served his sentence and promised to succeed.
He was free for only a couple months when “his life was taken for a foolish affair,” Ciarrochi said.
“Now you’re going to be a convict. You’ll know how he felt,” she said. “You ruined so many lives for a foolish mistake.”
She said she feels sorry for Raymond Prinkey’s family and holds no hatred toward him.
District Attorney Nancy Vernon asked the judge to impose the maximum sentence even though the jury showed mercy by convicting him of manslaughter.
“He executed him,” Vernon said, pointing out that Cononico had his hands in the air when he was shot. “He was totally in the surrender position and he was shot unmercifully through the brain.”
Raymond Prinkey, his sisters, Christine McCarty and Kathy Ravenscraft and his employer Rusty Mechling spoke in his behalf.
“I know my words do not help your pain. I want you to know I’m sorry. Remorse is not a strong enough word,” Raymond Prinkey said, responding to a question from his attorney David Shrager.
McCarty said her brother became an introvert in the weeks before the shooting.
She said he and his wife had been married for 17 or 18 years and each had children from previous relationships and had children together.
“My brother is a very good person. This is very out of character for him,” McCarty said.
“Mike has been a valued employee of Fayette Engineering for the past 16 years,” said Mechling, president of the company. “He is a person of very unusual accomplishments.”
He said Raymond Prinkey only had an associate degree in architectural engineering, but passed the professional engineer and engineering training tests, which have 50 percent pass rates, on his first attempts.
“If we had structural problems, we went to Mike,” Mechling said. “His accomplishments are practically unheard of.”
He said Raymond Prinkey never lost his temper and the shooting was out of character for him.
Mechling said he will rehire him when he gets out of prison.