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‘Vicious’ beating gets man 6- to 17-year state time

The man found responsible for severely beating Cameron Kriner outside of the Cell Block bar in October 2015 will be heading to state prison.

Cody L. Moore, 35, will serve six to 17 years as the result of  a sentence handed down Tuesday by Lycoming County President Judge Nancy L. Butts.

A three-year probationary period was added because of a probation violation.

The incident surrounding the beating began when Kriner saw a woman being dragged by a man by the back of her neck in the 300 block of William Street in the early-morning hours of Oct. 25, 2015.

When Kriner yelled to tell the man to stop, the man, Moore, turned on Kriner and began continuously striking him, ultimately fracturing Kriner’s cheeks and causing a concussion. The injuries resulted in Kriner having facial reconstructive surgery that included a titanium plate in his face for the rest of his life, according to court testimony from the trial.

Moore shouted to a city police officer, “I knocked that (expletive) into a coma,” according to the affidavit.

Moore was found guilty of aggravated assault, simple assault, recklessly endangering another person, disorderly conduct, harassment and public drunkenness by a county jury on Sept. 23.

Even though closure has come with the sentencing, the incident has altered the lives of Kriner and his family extending far into the future, Heather Shnyder, his mother, said.

“When it’s cold, the plate in my face feels cold … when it’s hot, it makes the rest of my face feel hot,” Shnyder said reading from an impact statement Kriner wrote to be read in court. “The hardest thing is knowing who I was before and how far I am from that now,” Shnyder read.

Shnyder said that when she asked her son if he saw someone that needed help in a similar situation in the future if he would step in, “He said he doesn’t know.”

Moore, who is a combat veteran, deals with issues that wouldn’t be addressed properly until after his punishment was served and he was able to take advantage of supervision, James Protasio, Moore’s attorney, said.

“He suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and many other problems that I don’t think have been properly addressed during his previous incarceration,” Protasio said. “He was under the influence during the incident and thought he was threatened, so he reacted the way he was trained.”

Because of the struggles Moore deals with, stress has a serious affect on the kind of person he becomes, Protasio said.

Moore also addressed the court.

“I’ve had a lot of time to think about this the last 14 months,” Moore said. “Being placed with the burden of guilt by a jury comes with a completely different set of afflictions. I’ve had to give up the best job I’ve ever had and my home … my family has to move out of the state. I’ve lost my interests in my life.”

But the issues Moore struggles with are not justification for the “vicious” attack, A. Melissa Kalaus, assistant district attorney, said.

“Trained to react that way or not, it is no justification. He had the opportunity to walk away, but he turned around, hitting (Kriner) so hard (Moore) broke his own wrist,” she said.

Sentences like this are difficult, because retribution is sought to replace the traumatic experiences of the family, Butts said. “But it doesn’t replace anything. It’s a cold comfort,” he said.

The sentence serves as a message to Moore and the community that these types of actions aren’t OK, Butts said.

Butts said that because of the nature of the incident, it is likely Moore won’t be released on the minimum sentence.

“What you’ve done is cause someone else to suffer from the same things you are,” she said.

Moore still was seen by the court as worthy of rehabilitation.

“It was a sad day and a lot of lives were affected for a long time into the future. … Sometimes when people are trained we forget what we train them for,” Butts said.

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