Amid his family’s pleas for leniency, a Malvern man was sentenced to state prison for murder
Kether Massiaz, 24, pleaded guilty to shooting a man during a botched drug deal in Cheltenham.
A Malvern man pleaded guilty Monday to killing a former friend during a botched drug deal that turned into a shootout on a residential street in Cheltenham.
Kether Massiaz, 24, entered the plea to third-degree murder during a hearing in Norristown, on what was scheduled to be the first day of his trial in the March 2020 shooting. He was sentenced immediately afterward to eight to 16 years in state prison.
But before County Court Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy handed down Massiaz’s sentence, she took time to acknowledge the more than 30 family members, friends, and classmates who attended the hearing on his behalf.
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“I can do a lot of things in here, but one thing I can’t do is turn back the clock,” Demchick-Alloy told Massaiz. “What I can do is advise you, at this point in your life, to not only remember this day, but to take what they told you here and improve your life.”
Some of the group supporting Massaiz took turns addressing Demchick-Alloy, testifying that he is a kind, considerate,and thoughtful young man who puts his family first. He erred, they said, by selling marijuana to make money on the side as he attended Lincoln University, but they asked the judge to give him as short a sentence as possible.
Prosecutors, led by Assistant District Attorney Scott Frame, acknowledged the love and support Massiaz had in his life, but reminded Demchick-Alloy of the reason they were all gathered in the courtroom.
“We also are here to recognize that the victim in this case was a human being, and he’s not here with us anymore,” Frame said.
On March 15, 2020, Massaiz and Wendell Allison-Haulcey, 28, planned to meet at an abandoned house in Cheltenham for a marijuana sale, prosecutors said. There, the two got into an argument that escalated into a fight — Massiaz’s attorney, David Walker, said his client had been lured there for the sale, only to be attacked by Allison-Haulcey.
The fight spilled out into the street, where witnesses watched and surveillance footage captured Allison-Haulcey firing a single shot at Massaiz as he ran away. Massiaz, prosecutors said, returned fire, shooting Allison-Haulcey twice, once in the chest and once in the arm. Allison-Haulcey was later pronounced dead at Abington Hospital-Jefferson Health.
Officers found Massiaz in his car at a nearby 7-Eleven, bleeding from a wound to the back of his head. The gun he had used to shoot Allison-Haulcey was registered to him and he was legally permitted to carry it, according to investigators.