In sentencing David Umstead, 30, of Venango County, for the August 28, 2014 murder of Delrio Ivy, 58; Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Beth Lazzara told Umstread,”The choice you made was to run after him, jump on top of him and repeatedly stab him,” as Umstead stood before her in handcuffs with his ankles shackled.
Umstead’s court-appointed attorney Erin Sontz argued to Lazzara moments before he was sentenced in an attempt to obtain a lesser sentence, “This was two intoxicated people who got into a fight.” Lazzara firmly rejected the claim, as did a jury of seven men and five women on August 28 when it found Umstead guilty of third-degree murder, Digital Journal reported.
Ivy’s younger brother, Darnell told Judge Lazzara that his brother’s death “Turned my whole life around. My mom died four weeks after [Delrio] was killed. Every day she asked ‘Where’s my son, has he been killed?'”
“My brother did not try to rob this man. My brother was a big teddy bear,” Ivy added just before asking that Umstead receive the maximum sentence — 40 years in prison.
Court documents and testimony during the two day trial established that Delrio, had a blood alcohol content of 0.1 percent at the time he was stabbed to death, which is significantly below the 0.8 percent limit required to convict a person of being legally intoxicated in Pennsylvania.
Two toxicologists told jurors during the trial that Ivy had cocaine, alcohol and a sedative in his system the night he was killed.
The victim’s daughter Nicole Ivy told Judge Lazzara in reading her mother’s written statement, “I forgive Mr. Umstead, but he needs to serve some time.” The couple had been married for 41 years she said
Two days before the murder according to court documents and trial testimony, Umstead had intentionally walked away from a halfway house in Pittsburgh where he was serving a one year sentence for his third DUI conviction.
Assistant District Attorney Chelsie Pratt argued that the reason the murder took place is because Umstead walked away from the halfway house and met Ivy in a downtown bar, where Umstead had gone seeking to purchase drugs, according to testimony at his trial.
Pratt also stressed to Judge Lazzara that Umstead has not shown any remorse, but his attorney and mother told Judge Lazarra that he has.
Jackie Wagner, Umstead’s mother apologized to the victim’s family in her brief statement, and said that Umstead has been in and out of jail since he was 15 years old.
According to Umstead, Ivy tried to rob him during a drug deal and cut him on his arm with a knife. However, no blood was ever found on Ivy’s knife and a video from a nearby business which was played during the trial, shows Umstead chasing Ivy and repeatedly stabbing him while Umstead sat on top of him.
After the sentencing, Wagner told Digital Journal the 20-40 year sentence “was too long.” She added that Umstead did not chase Ivy down and repeatedly stab him. When reminded of the video that shows Umstead doing exactly that, Wagner said, “I didn’t see that on the video at all.”
Just after handing Umstead his sentence, Judge Lazzara said she watched the video, “There’s no mutual combat on the video. That’s not self-defense—that’s murder.”
Umstead will also serve an additional 16-32 months in prison, consecutive to the 20-40 years for walking away from the halfway house.
