6 Get Prison Terms for Roles in ’69 York, Pa., Slaying

Six white men were sentenced to prison Wednesday in the shooting death of a black woman during a 1969 race riot that has haunted the city for the last 33 years.

The defendants apologized before they were sentenced, but the victim’s daughter complained that none of them had expressed any sorrow for the slaying of Lillie Belle Allen until they were in court, where an apology might lessen their punishment.

All six men pleaded guilty in August, and some testified for the prosecution in the trial earlier this year of York’s former mayor and two other white men. The mayor was acquitted; his co-defendants were found guilty.

Allen, 27, of Aiken, S.C., was killed amid 10 days of violence involving blacks and whites in York. During the riots, a white police officer, Henry Schaad, also was killed, more than 60 people were injured and 100 people were arrested.

Allen was shot to death at twilight after she got out of her family’s car to try to help her panicking sister steer the stalled vehicle away from a mob of armed white gang members.

On Wednesday, Arthur Messersmith was sentenced to 18 months to three years. He had faced up to nine years in prison for attempted murder and conspiracy.

Rick Knouse, William Ritter and Clarence Lutzinger were sentenced to nine to 23 1/2 months in prison, and Chauncey Gladfelter and Tom Smith received three to 23 1/2 months in prison. The five, all of whom pleaded guilty to conspiracy, had faced up to two years behind bars.

Messersmith, Knouse, Ritter and Lutzinger have admitted shooting at the car. Smith and Gladfelter admitted serving as lookouts for the gang members who had gathered in the street.

The defendants and their attorneys sought leniency from Judge John C. Uhler, saying some of them had been followers of older boys or policemen who had encouraged them to participate in the violence.

Allen’s 44-year-old daughter, Debra Taylor, and other relatives urged the judge to impose the maximum sentences on the six.

“It would have meant so much if you had just said, ‘It was a terrible thing, a horrific thing. I’m so sorry.’ That would have meant more to me than you doing life in prison,” Taylor told Messersmith.

Taylor also expressed anger at suggestions by defense attorneys and witnesses that the men shouldn’t have been prosecuted for a crime committed 33 years ago. “If you guys had told the truth way back when, we wouldn’t even be here today,” she said.

Last month, a jury convicted Messersmith’s brother Robert, the gang leader accused of firing the shot that killed Allen, and Gregory Neff, who fired several shots at the vehicle, on charges of second-degree murder.

The same jury acquitted former Mayor Charlie Robertson, a police officer at the time of the riots. He was accused of handing out ammunition and encouraging white gang members to shoot blacks.

Robert Messersmith and Neff could get up to 20 years in prison at sentencing next month.