Allegheny Township man gets up to 73 years for multiple rapes
Oct. 24—Three women who Eric A. Wright was convicted of sexually assaulting pleaded with Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio on Monday to hand down a harsh sentence, saying they feared he would continue racking up more victims if freed.
"The man probably should never see the light of day again," one said in testimony by phone during Wright's sentencing hearing. "I feel like he's going to hurt another woman."
A second woman said from the witness stand it "would do the community a disservice for him to be out at any point."
The third wrote in a letter read aloud in court that Wright deserves the maximum penalty.
"He needs help from God for not admitting his guilt," she said.
Bilik-DeFazio agreed with all of them and Assistant District Attorney Christina Gongaware in imposing consecutive sentences in Wright's conviction for four rapes and the sexual assaults of two other women. He was sentenced to 36 1/2 to 73 years in a state prison followed by nine years of probation. Wright, 50, of Allegheny Township was deemed a sexually violent predator.
"These were numerous, violent, brazen sexual assaults over a period of many years," Bilik-DeFazio said. "I find you to show a lack of remorse."
A Westmoreland County jury in April found Wright guilty of the sex assaults that prosecutors said dated to the early 2000s. In all, he was convicted of 24 charges, including multiple counts of rape, indecent assault, sexual assault and other offenses in six cases.
Prosecutors said Wright raped a then-12-year-old girl at least three times in 2019. He also was accused of raping a woman, now in her 30s, when she was a teen in the early 2000s. Two other women testified they were raped by Wright. A fifth accuser said she was molested by Wright as a teen more than a decade ago. The remaining woman told jurors Wright exposed himself to her in a local business.
Four of the victims who presented testimony Monday discussed the varying impacts the assaults have had on them, ranging from depression to unhealthy relationships. One said she turned to drugs to cope with the pain. Another woman testified she was able to escape the cycle of abusive relationships, but knows that others weren't as lucky.
"A lot of their lives are just completely destroyed," she said.
The woman who testified by phone said she now refers to herself as a survivor.
"I came a long way from what he did to me," she said.
Gongaware argued that Wright's actions were disturbing and he deserved a punishment fit for a selfish, narcissistic person.
"I can't find a reason why this would happen," she said. "There's no explanation for why he would do this, why he would harm so many people."
Prosecutors relied on testimony from all six victims to secure the conviction. The first attempt at trial in September 2021 resulted in a mistrial. No physical evidence was presented to support the allegations.
Wright has maintained his innocence throughout the court process and continued to do so Monday, reading from a lengthy handwritten statement. In it, he claimed prosecutors lacked physical evidence, relied on inconsistent and false witness statements and questioned how the two sets of jurors could come to different conclusions with the same testimony.
"The (witnesses) were just narrators in a narrative orchestrated" by prosecutors and fed to jurors, he said.
Wright testified on his own behalf during trial. He plans to appeal "until this travesty of justice is resolved," he said.
"There's supposed to be liberty and justice for all, that includes me."
Renatta Signorini is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Renatta by email at rsignorini@triblive.com or via Twitter .
