Man Heads To Prison In Connection With Montgomery County Drug Debt Killing

CHELTENHAM, PA — A Chester County man will be spending between eight and 16 years in state prison after being sentenced in connection with a March 2020 shooting death of a man in what was described as a drug debt related killing, according to court records and media reports.

Kether Optimus Massiaz, 24, of Malvern, Pa., received his prison sentence on Monday before Montgomery County Common Pleas Court Judge Wendy Demchick-Alloy, according to a report in the Mercury newspaper of Pottstown.

Court records show the sentencing came following a guilty plea hearing on Monday in which the defendant admitted that he fatally shot Wendell Allison-Haulcey, 28, of King of Prussia two years ago.

Haulcey had been fatally shot in the chest along the 400 block of West Glenside Avenue on March 15, 2020 around 9:12 p.m., the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office had previously reported.

When prosecutors announced charges against Massiaz in 2020 they had stated that investigators determined both men had exchanged gunfire and that Massiaz had also been bleeding from the head after the altercation.

The Mercury, citing court testimony, reported that Massiaz and Allison-Haulcey had been involved in a drug dispute.

The victim reportedly owed Massiaz $1,200 and a quarter-pound of marijuana and the shooting occurred after the two had gone to a West Glenside Avenue home that the victim had used as a stash house for the drugs, according to the newspaper's account.

The guilty plea to the third-degree homicide charge came shortly before trial was scheduled to begin in the case.