‘I’d like to know why’: Family seeks answers as Clairton killer is sent to prison
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A day after the start of trial for a Clairton man accused of killing his friend’s father, Sabr Ellis decided to change his not guilty plea.
The 25-year-old instead admitted Tuesday to voluntary manslaughter for the Jan. 21, 2021, stabbing death of Anthony Koontz.
As part of the negotiated agreement, Ellis was sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Thomas E. Flaherty to serve eight to 20 years in state prison.
“That was the worst day of my life,” Ellis told the court in a brief statement. “I’m sorry.”
Koontz, 55, was killed that morning in his Mendelssohn Avenue home. Ellis, who had been close friends with Koontz’s son since childhood, had been living with Koontz and his wife, Nicole, for about eight months.
On Monday during Ellis’ trial, one of the first Clairton police officers on the scene said it was the worst crime scene he’d ever seen.
Body camera footage played for the jury showed that the house was in disarray, with overturned furnishings throughout the first floor, and blood everywhere.
Police said that Ellis attacked Koontz that morning, stabbing him repeatedly.
No motive was provided to the jury.
Nicole Koontz was the prosecution’s first witness on Monday and the first person to give victim impact testimony on Tuesday.
“Sabr was a son to us,” she said. “Tony treated Sabr like the father he didn’t have.”
Ellis had a room in the basement, and the deal was that he could stay there as long as he was either working or in school, Nicole Koontz told the court.
“We have taken care of Sabr since he was 10 years old,” she said. “Every summer, he came to live with us.”
Her husband coached him in baseball, taught Ellis how to ride a dirt bike and bought him tires for his car.
Nicole Koontz was distraught on the stand.
“I don’t think I’ll ever understand why,” she said. “I’d like to know why.”
She questioned how Ellis could have left her husband’s body there, knowing she would be the one to find him.
“I don’t understand how you could take the life of a man that loved you,” she said. “And I loved you.”
Nicole Koontz said that she and her husband had been together for 37 years.
“I am lost,” she said. “I go to bed alone. I wake up alone. I don’t have anybody to tell me it’s going to be OK.”
Anthony Koontz worked as an industrial sales representative for Sherwin-Williams and was known in the community for being kind and helping troubled kids.
Two of Koontz’s brothers testified that they have been lost without him. A third brother, Randall, used to talk to him every night before bed, his family said. They were best friends.
“It has broken our family,” said Chris Koontz. “I don’t sleep. I think about it all the time.”
Brian Koontz testified that he had never been without his brother.
“He was my protector.”
Anthony Koontz was a leader in the community, and the two coached together for 10 years, both baseball and football, Brian Koontz said.
“You took that away from all of us,” he said to Ellis.