ALLENTOWN, Pa. — An Allentown man charged with homicide in the 2023 shooting death of a woman in the city pleaded guilty Thursday to a lesser charge.
Obadiah Whack, 31, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and possession of a prohibited firearm, in the Sept. 29, 2023, death of Giselle Trabal, 35, at 628 N. Law St.
Trabal was found with a gunshot wound to the chest and later succumbed to her injuries.
County Judge James T. Anthony sentenced Whack to 30-60 years in state prison.Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin Holihan, in a release
Both of the charges to which Whack pleaded are first-degree felonies, as part of the plea agreement, Lehigh County District Attorney Gavin P. Holihan said in a release.
County Judge James T. Anthony sentenced Whack to 30-60 years in state prison.
The plea agreement was reached after three days of trial before a jury, before the trial had ended.
Accused fired through door
Police said they were called to the site of the shooting at 2 a.m. and found Trabal inside her first-floor apartment.
A single discharged 9-millimeter cartridge casing was found in the hallway near the apartment's front door, police said.
Police said that prior to the shooting, Whack was inside Trabal’s apartment and got into a verbal argument with several people there.
Whack was told to leave the apartment and he went to a nearby home, where he got a handgun and returned to the hallway outside Trabal’s apartment and tried to get back inside.
Whack made several threats to shoot down the apartment door and when he was not allowed back inside, he fired one round from the handgun through the door, striking Trabal, police said.
Witnesses provided information on Whack, including a description of him and the license plate of the vehicle in which he fled.
That led police to an apartment in the 300 block of North 14th Street in Allentown, where they found Whack.
Police said Whack was pushed out of the apartment by several people inside, as was a bag containing two guns.
One of those guns inside the bag was the weapon used in the homicide, police said.
The case was investigated by Allentown Police Detective Nicholas J. Lerch and Lehigh County Homicide Task Force Detective Daniel Reagan and Moses Miller and was prosecuted by Chief County District Attorney Sara Moyer and Holihan.
