Michael N. Ochrang and Noah King agreed to meet at Erie’s Rodger Young Park to fight on the early morning of Jan. 15, 2023.
Ochrang would tell police that he received a message from others stating that there were to be no guns involved in the altercation.
But there were.
Erie police said both men were armed when Ochrang, who claimed King pointed a gun at him first, fired gunshots that struck King in the chest and the hip, killing the 21-year-old Wesleyville resident.
Ochrang, 25, was Initially charged by Erie police with a lead count of aggravated assault, a first-degree felony. Prosecutors added a count of third-degree murder at Ochrang’s preliminary hearing in February.
Those two charges, and many others Ochrang faced, were dropped by prosecutors under an agreement that led Ochrang on Friday morning to plead guilty to two third-degree felony counts of carrying a firearm without a license.
Chief Deputy District Attorney Jeremy Lighnter told Erie County Judge Daniel Brabender that prosecutors and Ochrang’s lawyer, Gene Placidi, were also recommending that Ochrang receive a 3½-to-7-year prison sentence. Each of the two charges Ochrang pleaded guilty to carries a maximum sentence of seven years in prison, Lightner said.