SUNBURY – PennLive is reporting… A Northumberland County man will spend the rest of his life in prison after admitting he fatally shot three family members in a dispute over a car nearly three years ago.
26-year-old Matthew Reed pleaded guilty Thursday in county court to three counts of first-degree murder and was immediately sentenced to three concurrent life terms without parole. Reed initially was facing the death penalty for killing James Dicken, 59, Susan Ann Williams, 58, and their son John Paul Dicken, 17, all of Snydertown.
It happened June 9, 2021, Reed reacted violently after James Dicken decided not to sell Reed a car, state police said. He told police he “snapped” and started shooting. When he was done, all three victims were dead.
Reed responded three times in the affirmative when Judge Paige Rosini asked him “did you do that” after District Attorney Michael C. O’Donnell detailed the allegations in each criminal count. He told the judge he had nothing to say before she imposed sentence.
Reed paid no attention when family members of the victims explained how the killings had impacted their lives. One of those, Cindy Mondrosch, who was Williams’ sister, read a statement entitled “The Day Evil Came Through My Sister’s Back Door.” In it, she noted the bodies were so brutalized that cremation was the only opinion.
