Montco lawyer pleads guilty to federal gun charge

Posted: March 20, 2013

DAVID MANILLA is already doing 10 to 25 years in prison for shooting a man through the heart while deer hunting, but the well-connected suburban lawyer was just bagged for another felony.

Manilla, 51, the nephew of former Montgomery County District Attorney Michael Marino, pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge of possession of firearms by a felon - which could lead to additional jail time in connection with the 2010 death of Barry Groh.

In 2011, Manilla pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and gun charges after he shot Groh to death with a high-powered rifle near Manilla's home in Worcester, Montgomery County. He had accumulated a cache of weapons, despite being forbidden from possessing a firearm because of a 1985 aggravated-assault conviction for breaking a man's skull with a dumbbell.

"He's doing state time, and then there's a question of whether or not the [federal] sentence would be imposed to run consecutive or concurrent," said Manilla's attorney, Robert Goldman.

Manilla faces up to 10 years in prison on the federal charge, but the sentencing guidelines are significantly lower. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for June before U.S. District Judge Jan E. DuBois.

At Manilla's state sentencing in 2011, Groh's widow, Theresa, called him a "spoiled rich boy" who believed he was "above the law."


On Twitter: @wbender99

Blog: philly.com/DailyDelco

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