The convicted sex offender who stabbed and killed 26-year-old Trenton man Courtney Levine in 2012 has been resentenced to lesser prison time.
David Noncent (New Jersey Department of Corrections Photo)
David Noncent of Ewing was originally hit with 13 years of state incarceration in March 2017 after pleading guilty to first-degree aggravated manslaughter, but Mercer County Superior Court Judge Peter Warshaw on May 7 reduced the punishment to 10 years behind bars.
Prosecutors long ago offered Noncent a plea deal calling for a 10-year prison sentence for manslaughter, but Warshaw last year suggested it was fair and in the interests of justice to imprison him for 13 years.
Noncent was originally charged with murder and weapons offenses but pleaded guilty Dec. 6, 2016, to an amended single count of first-degree aggravated manslaughter. He admits he killed Levine in the first block of Chapel Street on Dec. 4, 2012.
The homicide victim was the brother of Noncent’s ex-girlfriend. Noncent and Levine were arguing over alleged domestic violence issues between Noncent and his ex-girlfriend when the registered sex offender pierced a knife into the victim’s lung, causing him to bleed to death internally, according to the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office. Noncent surrendered to police the following day.
On March 23, 2017, Warshaw sentenced Noncent to 13 years of state incarceration pursuant to the No Early Release Act requiring he serve 85 percent of the term behind bars before being paroled. Noncent filed an appeal on May 31, 2017, apparently viewing the sentence as too harsh.
Mercer County Assistant Prosecutor Joseph Paravecchia ultimately filed a motion on April 25 requesting a modified sentence. Warshaw on May 7 granted the motion and resentenced Noncent to 10 years of state imprisonment subject to the No Early Release Act, according to court records.
Noncent was awarded 1,569 days of jail credit and 411 days of prison service credit in the Trenton homicide case. He is scheduled to be released from East Jersey State Prison on June 5, 2021, and will thereafter be subjected to five years of parole supervision, records show.
Warshaw also ordered Noncent to provide a DNA sample and ordered him to pay the costs for testing of the sample provided. Public defender Stephen E. Kirsch represented Noncent at the May 7 resentencing hearing.
With Noncent being resentenced to lesser prison time, the state Judiciary dismissed his appeal on May 9. Noncent’s 10-year prison sentence is being served concurrent to the five-year prison sentences he received for violating probation in cases where he previously got convicted of theft and terroristic threats.
More than a self-confessed killer, Noncent had a criminal career that spanned two decades in both Burlington and Mercer counties. He was convicted of criminal sexual contact against two juvenile females in 1995 after pleading guilty on two counts, according to court records.
The New Jersey Department of Corrections lists Noncent’s date of birth as Jan. 28, 1961, which would make him 57. The state’s sex offender registry, however, says Noncent’s date of birth is Jan. 28, 1972, which would make him 46. Noncent has numerous aliases such as Howard Barnes and David Putty, which could perhaps explain why authorities have two different dates of birth for the same man as confirmed by fingerprints.
All of Noncent’s criminal case files in New Jersey identify him by the same unique State Bureau of Identification or SBI number.
Judge Warshaw has a history of reducing the severity of his prison sentences. In 2016 he sentenced self-confessed killer Curtis J. Grier to 10 years of state incarceration for slaying 24-year-old Jahmir Hall and resentenced Grier earlier this year to seven years of state incarceration pursuant to the No Early Release Act requiring him to serve 85 percent of the maximum term before being paroled.