Trio pleads guilty to attempted metal theft from Hamill Manufacturing

Two men were sentenced to almost a year in prison Monday after pleading guilty to the attempted theft of U.S. submarine metal from a Penn Township manufacturer.

Bobby Lucci, 27, and Marcello Miguel, 22, both of Mt. Ephraim, N.J., will serve from 364 days to two years, less one day, in prison. Police said they attempted to steal three cylindrical discs of nickel chromium iron alloy in January from Hamill Manufacturing Co. on Pleasant Valley Road.

Their prison sentences on five other charges, including conspiracy, receiving stolen property and criminal trespass, will run concurrently. They will get credit for time served and also will serve two years of probation, Westmoreland County Judge Scott Mears said.

County Assistant District Attorney Katie Ranker unsuccessfully argued that Lucci and Miguel deserved harsher sentences.

Mears said the prison sentence he ordered is only one day less than the standard range for sentencing.

“I’m not going off the reservation,” Mears said.

A representative from Hamill Manufacturing did not attend their plea hearings Monday, but Ranker said the theft does have national security implications because the alloy is used in submarines.

A third co-defendant, Anthony Miguel, 31, of Mt. Holly, N.J., pleaded guilty to the same charges on Aug. 13 and received a similar prison sentence, but was placed on five years of probation. The representative from Hamill Manufacturing did not object to that sentence, Mears said.

Penn Township police said the thieves broke a lock to a secured storage facility around 3:20 a.m. Jan. 13 and attempted to haul away the metal in a pickup when they were stopped by a police officer. The three discs were valued at $330,000, with a scrap value of about $2,000, Mears said.

Police said the trio were part of a multistate theft ring.