Inset left: Steffen Tidwell (Lancaster County District Attorney's Office). Inset right: Jomar Almestica (Obituary). Background: The residential street where Tidwell shot and killed Almestica in Lancaster, Pa. (Google Maps).
A Pennsylvania man will spend several years behind bars for shooting and killing an innocent bystander outside a family barbecue.
In October 2025, Steffen Tidwell, 31, was convicted by a jury of his peers in Lancaster County on counts of voluntary manslaughter and discharging a firearm for the death of 26-year-old Jomar Almestica.
On Thursday, the defendant was sentenced by Lancaster County Court of Common Pleas Judge Dennis Reinaker to a sentence of eight to 20 years in state prison as well as $8,000 in restitution.
The underlying incident occurred on Aug. 20, 2021, outside of a party on Hebrank Street in Lancaster – a medium-sized city which is located roughly 80 miles due west of Philadelphia.
Around 10 p.m. on the night in question, the family barbecue turned into what prosecutors termed "a scene of death" when Tidwell got into a "tense argument" with someone, according to a press release issued by the Lancaster County District Attorney's Office.
At some point, the since-condemned man got a handgun out of his car, pointed it at Almestica and squeezed the trigger five times.
The Lancaster City Police Department arrived at the scene of the crime around 10:15 p.m. and transported the victim to a nearby hospital where he succumbed to his injuries an hour later.
"There's no reason why this should have happened," Assistant District Attorney Jessica Collo, who prosecuted the case, said in a statement. "He escalated the situation. There's no doubt of that."
Accounts of the night vary.
Prosecutors said Almestica was not at all involved in the dispute and was merely sitting or standing on the porch or steps of another residence when the violence broke out, according to courtroom reports by the Daily Voice and Lancaster Online.
The defendant, for his part, argued self-defense by claiming that he believed he saw Almestica reach for a gun during the altercation. The state countered that argument by reiterating that the victim was not part of the argument and said there was no indication he had a gun.
In the end, the jury seemed to split the difference, rejecting far more serious charges of murder in the first and third degrees – which would have resulted in sentences of life in prison without the possibility of parole or between 20-40 years in prison, respectively.
Tidwell was volubly contrite during his allocution.
At various points, he apologized to the victim's family in general and asked their forgiveness. He also apologized to Almestica's mother directly and referred to the slain man as a "precious life," according to the prosecutor's office. The defendant also said he was ready to be held accountable for his actions and stressed that though he was "in no way proud" of what had transpired, he had changed during the four and a half years spent in pretrial detention and would use his remaining time in prison to become a better person.
"I'm sorry for the pain and trauma I caused you," Tidwell told the family. "I have to deal with that for the rest of my life."
The prosecutor, however, aimed to counter the defendant's contrition and story of becoming better than he had previously been.
"What is justice if the price of one man's progress is another man's life?" Collo told the court.
The victim's family was also represented during the sentencing hearing.
In a letter to the court from Almestica's mother, Collo read aloud about the "great pain and emptiness" in her heart caused by her son's death. Almestica, his mother wrote, was "a good, humble and simple boy" who loved fishing and giving gifts to his children. After the shooting, Almestica's mother stressed, his children will grow up without a father.
"He was a son who cared," another family member told the court. "He was a father who mattered."
Almestica was a father of three and an aspiring musician who went by the stage name "J-Easy LP."
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