Parkside man gets 35 to 70 years for shooting, wounding Philly officer

Both men are in their 30s, married, with two young children. Both also carry the scars from their armed encounter two years ago.

But those similarities ended with the way Daniel Kostick and William Nobblen exited a Philadelphia courtroom Monday.

Kostick, 33, left with his family to welcoming handshakes and embraces from his fellow Philadelphia police officers.

Nobblen, 37, left the courtroom in handcuffs — his forlorn wife, Malana, comforted by one friend in a courtroom packed with police — embarking on a 35- to 70-year prison term for shooting and wounding Kostick in a late-night drug stop in West Philadelphia.

"I'm sorry, your honor, this is the most difficult day in my life," Nobblen told Common Pleas Court Judge Mia R. Perez before he was sentenced.

Defense lawyer Jonathan B. Strange told Perez that he had advised Nobblen not to speak because anything he said could be used against him at another trial in October on an aggravated assault and a gun charge.

A jury in April convicted Nobblen of aggravated assault and assault on a police officer. His lawyer says he will appeal the conviction.

Perez noted the surface similarities between the two men and said "both families will feel the effect of this for their rest of their lives."

She also cited Nobblen's childhood: born to a drug-addicted 17-year-old single mother who abandoned him for long periods, father missing, abused by a great-uncle who preyed on several generations of children in the family.

"There's no doubt that you have not had the easiest road in life," Perez told Nobblen. "You have experienced trauma that has spanned many generations of your family. Unfortunately, that trauma will continue."

Perez, who reminded Nobblen that she had offered to recuse herself from his trial because she is married to a police sergeant, mentioned the fear that trails the families of law enforcement officers.

Perez said she needed to impose a sentence that "will deter others."

Kostick, who joined the department in 2008 and still carries the bullet that shattered his shoulder and then lodged in his neck, said nothing during the 90-minute sentencing or after it ended.

Kostick's family and wife, Alexandra, submitted victim-impact statements detailing the impact on his children and extended family and his painful road to recovery.

The statements were read aloud by Assistant District Attorney Allison Borgatti, who also said that Kostick left his job as a bicycle officer in West Philadelphia's 19^th Police District for a "safer" job with the police Crime Scene Unit.

The events leading to the shooting began about 10:15 p.m. on April 23, 2015, at 52^nd Street and Girard Avenue.

According to Borgatti, Kostick and his partner and best friend Thomas Howe were on patrol on bicycles when they spotted a white minivan parked and the driver smoking what appeared to be marijuana.

As the officers approached the van, Borgatti said, the van made a U-turn and sped east on Girard. Howe called police radio while Kostick tried to see where the van went.

Instead, Borgatti continued, Kostick encountered the driver on foot at 51^st and Warren Streets and recognized him because of a teardrop tattoo under his right eye.

"I don't want to have to do this," Borgatti said the suspect warned and then fired at Kostick, hitting him in the shoulder. Though wounded, Kostick drew his pistol and fired back hitting the suspect in the arm.

Officers caught up to the wounded Nobblen in a nearby alley, smoking a marijuana cigarette, and arrested him.

Strange argued for the mandatory 20- to 40-year sentence and nothing more, maintaining that Nobblen did not intend to harm the officer: "He believed he was acting to protect himself. He made decisions that, today, he surely regrets."

Borgatti, who asked the judge to sentence Nobblen to 43½ to 87 years in prison, argued that Nobblen has never worked except as a drug dealer, adding, "He completely adopted the gangster way of life."

Borgatti also read aloud an expletive-pocked June 19, 2017, letter to Mayor Kenney, purportedly written by Nobblen, complaining of racist treatment by police and prison officials and saying "they were framing me because I was a better shot than he."

The letter ended with an expletive and the words, "Die slow, Mr. Mayor."