PITTSBURGH — An Allegheny County judge ruled Friday that a local high school football quarterback accused of using a gun to rob a pizza delivery driver will have his case heard in juvenile court.
Prosecutors allege 18-year-old Harry Randall, who’s sought by Division I universities, and another man ordered pizzas on March 6 and then robbed the delivery man at gun point of the pizzas and his wallet. Police later found the driver's wallet, the pizzas and a delivery bag at Randall's home.
“This is the last chance you're ever going to have to keep yourself from going to prison for five to 10 years. I hope you act on it,” Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Anthony M. Mariani said before sending charges against Randall to juvenile court.
Mariani announced before making his ruling that he is a professional football fan.
“I'm not doing this because you're a starting quarterback on the football team. I am doing this because you have athletic abilities that can focus you,” Mariani said, adding that the colleges and universities recruiting Randall will give him an opportunity for an education regardless if he advances his football career. “The education side of this is much more significant to me than the football side.”
Randall was two months shy of his 18th birthday in March. Originally charged as an adult in the crime, Kaitlin Euler, his attorney, petitioned Mariani to move the case to juvenile court. Rather than Randall looking at parole in five or six years, he could have graduated from college, Euler said.
Randall is a quarterback from Woodland Hills, a school that has produced several pro and college players. Head football coach George Novak testified that West Virginia, Temple and Georgia Tech had offered Randall full scholarships to play football.
Randall has a juvenile court hearing scheduled for Tuesday at the Shuman Juvenile Detention Center.
Channel 11’s news exchange partners at TribLIVE contributed to this report.
WPXI
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