Oberhart receives formal sentence to life in prison

Newton resident Tyler Ray Oberhart was formally sentenced Monday to life in prison with no chance of parole for first-degree murder in the October 2007 stabbing death of 19-year-old Jerry Alden Pittman II. District Judge Dale B. Hagen also ordered 18-year-old Oberhart to pay $150,000 in restitution to Pittman’s parents, Jerry and Shasta. Pittman’s father found his son’s body outside the family’s former residence at 714 W. Third St. S. in Newton at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 6, 2007. Court records and testimony during Oberhart’s trial indicated Pittman had been stabbed 29 times during an altercation with Oberhart and two other teens over a drug trade earlier that morning, during which Pittman gave Oberhart grass clippings instead of marijuana as expected in exchange for several Xanax pills. A Dallas County jury found Oberhart guilty of first-degree murder on Aug. 7 following a trial that lasted nearly two weeks. His attorneys, Tomas Rodriguez and Raymond Reel of the Marshalltown Public Defender’s Office, have filed a notice to appeal the decision. Oberhart and 20-year-old Justin Alan Robuck, who was dating the sister Oberhart’s then-girlfriend Mishana Laura Cornejo, both were charged with first-degree murder a day after Pittman’s body was found. A few weeks later, 20-year-old Ray Robert Travis of Newton also was charged with first-degree murder in Pittman’s death. Robuck was found guilty of second-degree murder earlier this month following a jury trial in Dallas County, and Travis pleaded guilty to second-degree robbery as part of a plea agreement with the Jasper County Attorney’s Office.

During Oberhart’s trial, Cornejo and 18-year-old Courtney Patricia Hummel of Newton, who was dating Travis last October, testified they went with the three boys to Pittman’s residence around 3:45 a.m. Oct. 6, 2007, and waited in Hummel’s vehicle in an alley behind Pittman’s residence during the confrontation. Hummel testified she gave Oberhart a switchblade for protection after he requested it and that Robuck was carrying a butterfly knife. Both said the boys returned a short time later with blood on their clothes and Robuck suffering from a serious stab wound through his left hand. Hummel told jurors she heard Oberhart say he stabbed Pittman in the chest, and Cornejo recalled hearing Robuck claim to have stabbed Pittman “at least 30 times.” Other witnesses testified Oberhart told them he stabbed Pittman in the heart. In videotaped interview with law enforcement that was shown to jurors during his trial, Oberhart described to investigators how he attacked Pittman after being hit in the face with a piece of PVC pipe and admitted he stabbed Pittman twice in the leg. Robuck also claimed during his trial to have stabbed Pittman only twice in the leg during the incident. Evidence indicated Oberhart was under the influence of alcohol and narcotics the night of Pittman’s death, and he had been stopped earlier that evening for drunken driving. A police officer confiscated marijuana witnesses testified belonged to Oberhart during the arrest and later released him to his mother. Oberhart currently is serving a five-year prison sentence for assault causing injury, amended from a class C felony charge of willful injury, at Anamosa State Penitentiary. Court documents indicate Oberhart was charged in that case in July 2007 for pushing Cornejo’s younger brother down a flight of stairs and kicking him repeatedly in the head and face.

Mandi Lamb can be contacted at 792-3121 ext. 424 or via e-mail at mlamb@newtondailynews.com.