Credit: Falls Township police
Thomas Ronald Zorrer knows where he will be for the next 18 to 40 years.
The 39-year-old homeless man was sentenced by Bucks County Judge Brian McGuffin to the state prison term Wednesday at the Justice Center. He was also ordered to five years of probation and ordered to have no contact with the victim and his ex-girlfriend, according to the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office.
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In early December 2021, Zorrer was convicted by a jury of two counts of aggravated assault and one count each of attempted homicide, felon not to possess a firearm, recklessly endangering another person, terroristic threats, and possession of an instrument of crime.
Before McGuffin on Wednesday, Deputy District Attorney Marc Furber played audio of prison phone calls from Zorrer where he threated the shooting victim, his ex-girlfriend, and prosecutors and law enforcement involved in the case. The calls were from April 2019 through late December 2021.
The new evidence combined with the conviction led McGuffin to impose the sentence. He highlighted Zorrer’s “constant disrespect for authority, his egregious conduct, and his wanton disregard.”
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“I mean you can’t be good in jail; how will I be confident you will be good if you get out,” McGuffin said
Zorrer shot the male victim in the ear after he stepped up to warn him not to fire a handgun during an argument between Zorrer and his girlfriend at a residence at the Bel-Aire mobile home community on Old Bristol Pike in the Morrisville section of Falls Township in February 2019, according to authorities.
Zorrer also hit the man who was shot with the gun.
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“Be a man,” Zorrer reportedly told the gunshot victim.
Zorrer and his girlfriend fled the Falls Township home. He then was arrested by authorities in Penndel Borough, police said.
The man who was shot survived, but prosecutors said at trial that he still suffers from hearing issues.
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Zorrer was prohibited from possessing a firearm at the time of the shooting, court records noted.
Zorrer has numerous previous arrests in Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia counties. He has been convicted of harassment, burglary, simple assault, access device fraud, and other crimes over the past 15 years. The felon, who has previously lived in Levittown and Philadelphia, also has been hit with probation violations in Bucks County.
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