21-year-old Dale Wakefield has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murder of homeless veteran George Mohr last summer. Wakefield stabbed Mohr 71 times in the face with a pocketknife outside the Doylestown train station.
Wakefield was out celebrating his 21st birthday, when he encountered 71-year-old George Mohr. Wakefield asked Mohr for money, and was denied. NBC 10 reports that Wakefield’s sister testified that her brother “just snapped” when Mohr denied his request for money.
Wakefield pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in a deal with prosecutors. This plea spared him from the death penalty.
United Press International reports that First Assistant District Attorney Michelle Henry said, “The significance of this sentence is that it makes the community safer. Dale Wakefield will never see the outside of a prison.”
Mohr’s sister, Kathy Driscoll, made an emotional statement about her deceased brother. NBC 10 reports that she called him a “kind, generous, caring man.” She described his Army service in Vietnam, and discussed his subsequent battles with schizophrenia.
Judge Rea Boylan also sentenced Wakefield to 5½ to 20 years in prison on an assault conviction. Wakefield pleaded guilty Thursday to assaulting another inmate with a pen in the Bucks County Jail.