READING, Pa. – Members of a Berks County family rallied around one other inside a courtroom today as the man found guilty of killing their loved one was sentenced. The judge gave the convicted murderer the chance to speak – but would he say anything?
“Very emotional,” said Troy’s sister, Tonya Yambo.
Life in prison — but a life still lost.
“Closure would have my brother back, but that’s not gonna happen,” Yambo said.
The family of Troy Rickenbach, a security guard killed during a catalytic converter theft in a New Morgan parking lot in August of 2022, gathered inside a Reading courtroom for the sentencing of the man found guilty of his murder, David Hartsook.
“I want to say a whole lot more to him, and I can’t, but I want to be civil,” said Yambo. “We couldn’t say it directly to him.”
Hartsook appeared via video from Berks County Jail to hear the emotional victim impact statements from Rickenbach’s family, like Troy’s mother, just days before Mother’s Day, recalling her son’s life cut short.
“I’m not happy the way things ended. It still went his way. We still had to do things, his rights, not our rights,” said Cathy Lightcap, the victim’s mother.
She says the family is being strong for the kids.
“I know his little boy, I couldn’t read his statement, but he misses his dad and wishes he was here. And he’s the spitting image of his dad, a little goofball with red hair. I try not to cry around them on their birthdays because I don’t want their birthdays to be sad, but it’s emotional at that time,” Lightcap said.
The judge gave Hartsook a chance to speak to the family, but he said he had nothing to say.
“Oh, I knew that. What does he have to say? He killed my brother over metal, a car part. He has no remorse,” said Yambo. “Troy was a wonderful man who would give his shirt off his back to anyone. He did anything for anyone. He loved his family.”
The judge, before handing down her sentence, briefly commented on the senseless nature of the crime, saying, “I can’t understand what happened that night”.