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Janiczek Sentenced to 25 to 50 Years
Dalton Janiczek, 22, was sentenced Thursday to 25 to 50 years in state prison after he pleaded guilty but mentally ill to trying to kill Plymouth Township Officer Jake Hennessey with an SUV.
By Crime Talk Network Staff Writer ·
Guilty but mentally ill is still a conviction. It sends him to prison with psychiatric care, and it is not an insanity acquittal. Twenty-five to 50 years is the judgment for driving an SUV over an officer who lived to describe it.
Montgomery County Judge Wendy Rothstein on Thursday sentenced Dalton Janiczek, 22, of Lower Gwynedd, to 25 to 50 years in state prison.
He pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, and fleeing police. That plea means he will get psychiatric care while he serves the sentence. It was entered days before a jury trial was supposed to start.
On Oct. 24, 2025, just after 12:30 p.m., Officer Jake Hennessey found Janiczek in a Mercedes SUV outside the DoubleTree hotel on Fountain Road in Plymouth Township. Janiczek had called 911 and said he wanted to blow up a police station and hurt officers. He reversed into the patrol car, then drove straight at Hennessey. The officer fired six shots toward the windshield. The SUV hit him, knocked him down, and came back three more times while he tried to get a tourniquet on his leg. Janiczek then hit other Plymouth Township police vehicles. Sgt. Kyle Wilhelm was seriously hurt and later retired.
Hennessey has had five surgeries. He came to the sentencing and said he still hears himself yelling for help. Janiczek told the judge he had not understood that he was mentally ill, and that he was sorry. His lawyer said Janiczek is bipolar, had been involuntarily committed days before the attack, and had refused his medication.
All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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