Credit: Lower Makefield police
A Levittown resident who stabbed a man in Lower Makefield Township in September 2019 was sentenced to prison Friday.
Zachary Ganie, 24, was sentenced at the Justice Center by Bucks County Judge Diane Gibbons to 3.5 years to 10 years in state prison and 10 years of probation. Ganie will have to abide by the recommendations of drug and alcohol and mental health evaluations. In addition, he will have to pay restitution of $628.72 and attend anger management classes, according to court papers.
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Gibbon allowed Ganie to received credit for time served since September 2019.
Ganie pleaded guilty in June to aggravated assault, possession of an instrument of crime, and reckless endangering another person and no contest to two counts of simple assault, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
Ganie stabbed a then-32-year-old man six times on his head, back, side, and abdomen in the 700 block of Mill Road in Lower Makefield Township on the night of September 12, 2019. The man needed immediate surgery and other operations to fix a major liver laceration, diaphragm injury, and he needed a chest tube to remove blood that had pooled. The victim also suffered a left orbital fracture, sinus fracture, and wounds to his face and ear, authorities said.
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The situation was so dire that the man needed to be resuscitated at one point, prosecutors said.
Hours before the near-fatal attack, Ganie was in a confrontation where he urinated on flowers outside the Lower Makefield Township residence and took alcohol from the home, leading to the assault of a woman who tried to stop him, authorities said.
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Following the incident, two subjects and the 32-year-old man went to Ganie’s mother’s home in Falls Township. One of them spoke with his mom, who told investigations she gave $60 to pay for the alcohol taken by her son, authorities said.
Ganie returned to the Mill Road residence the night of September 12, 2019 and spoke with the 32-year-old man. Two witnesses said Ganie struck the victim in the head with a bottle and the two began to fight. At that time, Ganie punched and stabbed the man, according to authorities.
During the sentencing, victim impact statements from three people, including the man stabbed, were placed on the record.
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The stabbing victim wrote that the “physical effects have been devastating, but the psychological and emotional trauma has been even worse.”
“I want to know why the defendant chose to use a knife in a fist fight,” he said. “I had thought he and I were on cordial terms, and I never thought the situation that night would escalate to the point where I almost died. I feel like the defendant is a danger to the community, and I’m afraid of what he might do when he is released from prison.”
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