Home invader sentenced to 17 years

It must have been a terrifying night for a University of Pennsylvania graduate student.

About 11:30 p.m. March 9, 2008, he was in the stairwell of his West Philadelphia apartment building when two men dragged him to his apartment, then held him hostage for 12 hours. They covered his mouth with duct tape, pulled a sweater over his head like a hood, and tied him up.

During the long, torturous hours, one of the attackers took the victim's debit card and went on a shopping spree - buying an Xbox game system, a PlayStation, video games, clothing and jewelry. The other stayed in the apartment watching movies and surfing on the victim's computer.

Yesterday in court, Common Pleas Judge Gwendolyn Bright sentenced one of the thugs, Justin Sheppard, to 17 to 34 years in state prison.

A jury in January convicted Sheppard, 26, who had been living in West Philadelphia, of aggravated assault, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and conspiracy.

Although the victim, Matthew Anderson, 31, testified that Sheppard had put a gun to his neck when he was accosted in his apartment stairwell on Spruce Street near 43rd, the panel acquitted Sheppard of weapons offenses.

Co-defendant Devin Johnson, 39, whom prosecutors alleged was the one who stayed in the apartment during the attack, was acquitted by the jury of all charges.

Assistant District Attorney Richard Boyd said outside court yesterday that police had recovered from Sheppard's house the items stolen from Anderson's apartment - including a Mac laptop computer, an iPhone and debit and credit cards - and items bought during the shopping spree. No gun was found in Sheppard's house.

Evidence showed that Sheppard had gone out on the shopping spree. After he returned, the two assailants tied Anderson to a chair before they left the apartment, Boyd said. Anderson was later able to wiggle himself free, then call police.

In court yesterday, Sheppard, a thin man with short, brown hair, told the judge: "I'm scared out of my mind" and "I'm sorry."

"I regret what I did," he said. "It was a mistake."

When asked by the judge why he had committed the crime, he said: "I have and still have problems with drugs. That night, I wasn't of my normal frame of mind."

He also said his co-defendant "was truly innocent."

Defense attorney Derrick Coker told the judge that letters submitted by Sheppard's family, pastors and employers indicated that this was "an aberration" in his client's life, and that Sheppard is "essentially nonviolent."

Sheppard's mother, father, brother and a friend testified that the crime was not in line with his character.

The judge called the case "one of the most horrible crimes I have seen. . . . This gentleman [An-derson] was terrorized in his own home. . . . I'm sure it will help the victim to know you're locked up." *