For shooting cop in the face, he gets 36 to 72 years in jail

Police Officer Richard Decoatsworth, standing tall and looking handsome in his blue police uniform, said yesterday after the man who shot him was sentenced to a long prison term that he's excited to be back on duty and working as a cop.

"It's been about three weeks now, I've been on the street, I've made a couple of pinches," he told reporters about his return to the 16th Police District, which covers part of West Philadelphia.

The officer, now 22, said he is expected to get a new assignment with Highway Patrol: "I can't wait to do the best job I can there."

As the officer - who bravely chased 20-year-old Antonio Coulter after Coulter shot him in the face last year - walked outside the Criminal Justice Center, various bystanders recognized him. Mary Harris Richardson, in her 40s, said aloud to another observer: "He's looking good!"

"I'm glad to see that he's doing very well," she said. "It's good to see him back on the force. . . . To be shot by these morons out here, it's really a blessing" that he's well.

Earlier in court, Common Pleas Judge Glenn Bronson sentenced Coulter to 36 to 72 years in state prison for the shooting and for his attempt to escape afterward.

Decoatsworth told reporters he was "very pleased with the decision the judge made. That young man's life is over now. He's going to have to find some way to get used to his new home. I'm sure the guys up there [in state prison] can't wait to meet him. So we're all excited about that."

Last month, Coulter pleaded guilty to attempted murder, aggravated assault, burglary, weapons charges and related offenses.

Yesterday, it was revealed that he later tried to withdraw that plea by filing a motion on his own.

The judge said yesterday that Coulter's attempt to change his plea and false assertions he made in the motion diminished the responsibility he had accepted by pleading guilty.

This is "not some type of game," he told Coulter.

Decoatsworth - who was supported in court by his parents, his captain and about 20 police colleagues - told the judge that he thinks about the shooting every day. "It seems every time I make progress, something drags me back to the past," he said, reading from a statement.

It was about 9 a.m. Sept. 24 when Decoatsworth got out of his patrol car to check on Coulter, who he realized had backed his Buick LeSabre the wrong way on Farson Street near Market, in West Philly. Coulter lived on that block.

After the officer got out of his car, Coulter popped up and fired a sawed-off shotgun filled with birdshot over his car's roof, hitting Decoatsworth in the lower left side of his face.

Bleeding profusely, Decoatsworth bravely chased Coulter and called the police radio room.

Coulter, dressed in a white buttoned shirt and black-and-white tie, with his hands cuffed in front, told the judge yesterday: "First, I want to say you probably look at me as a bad person. . . . I just made a mistake." He added: "I want to apologize to Officer Decoatsworth and his family."

Assistant District Attorney Mark Levenberg asked for the maximum sentence allowable on all charges - a total of 57 to 114 years. The shooting "was a premeditated ambush on an officer who was on duty," he said. He noted that Coulter had told people in the weeks before the shooting that he "would shoot the next officer" he met up with.

Levenberg previously has said that about a month before the shooting, Decoatsworth had stopped Coulter and others on a West Philadelphia street after he thought Coulter "was rolling a blunt," a marijuana-filled cigar. The item turned out to be tobacco, and Coulter and his friends were let go.

Defense attorney Michael John Graves Jr. said his client had no prior adult record, needs mental-health treatment and has shown remorse. He asked the judge for a sentence of 10 to 20 years.

The officer's 16th District captain, Christine Coulter - who is not related to the defendant - noted that the shooting of Decoatsworth began "one of the most violent" periods in the city when a number of officers were shot, ending with the fatal shooting of Officer Chuck Cassidy on Oct. 31.

The judge sentenced the defendant in the aggravated range of the guidelines and considered, among other things, the victim and the public's protection.