Lansford man pleads guilty to threatening wife

A Carbon County man admitted threatening his wife during a domestic incident on Monday in Carbon County court before Judge Joseph J. Matika.

Stefone Leisure, 32, of Lansford, pleaded to one count of terroristic threats, a misdemeanor 1 offense, for an incident on July 6. In exchange for the plea, the district attorney’s office dropped counts of strangulation, a felony 2, unlawful restraint, recklessly endangering another person and two counts of simple assault.

Borough police had responded to Leisure’s apartment along West Abbott Street for a domestic assault report.

Defense attorney Matthew J. Mottola, of the public defender’s office, told the court his client “had hit rock bottom.” He blamed Leisure’s problems on drug and alcohol abuse.

Leisure told the court, “I want my wife to know I never meant to hurt her. I just want to fix this with my children.”

Leisure has been an inmate in the county prison since the incident.

The victim spoke to the court, saying she had started divorce and custody proceedings and asked Matika to impose a no-contact provision in his sentence.

Matika told Leisure, “There is no question you ruined a lot of things in your life.”

He told Leisure and his wife they would have to have contact with each other concerning matters with their children.

Matika sentenced Leisure to time-served (45 days) to one day less 24 months in prison and ordered him to get both mental health and drug and alcohol evaluations and follow any recommendation for treatment, attend and successfully complete an anger management course, render 75 hours of community service and have no contact with his wife, except for matters involving their children.