Manor Township man sentenced to up to 45 years in prison after being found guilty of slashing man in throat after bar altercation

A Manor Township man was sentenced to 20 to 45 years in state prison last month after a jury found him guilty earlier this year of cutting a man’s throat after an early morning altercation at a city bar.

In asking Judge David Ashworth to impose the harsh sentence, Assistant District Attorney Emily Corcuera, who prosecuted the case alongside Assistant District Attorney Chris Miller, told the court she had many concerns about Syeen Hill’s actions.

All it took was “a bump in a club,” Corcuera noted, to give Hill murderous intent toward a complete stranger despite having more than enough time to cool down.

Judge Ashworth sentenced Hill, of the 200 block of Stone Mill Road, on Nov. 24.

While claiming he “wasn’t going out looking for trouble” when he slashed the victim with a knife during the early morning hours of July 28, 2024, “trouble found me,” Hill told the court.

Those words echoed Hill’s testimony during the two-day trial in October that he acted in self-defense as the victim “towered over” him when he confronted him outside a downtown bar in the 200 block of North Queen Street. A jury nevertheless found Hill guilty of attempted criminal homicide, aggravated assault, recklessly endangering another person and possession of an instrument of crime.

For several minutes before being sentenced Hill struggled to come up with the words to defend himself before repeatedly stressing to Judge Ashworth that he never intended to kill or harm anyone.

“As I said on the stand, I didn’t intend to take a life,” said Hill, 45.

But in handing down the sentence Judge Ashworth said there was “no escaping the fact” that Hill’s actions could have been deadly.

Had the victim not been as large or as physically fit, Corcuera told the court, he likely would have been killed.

Hill slowly nodded as Judge Ashworth read the sentence, then hung his head. Even a shorter sentence of 15 years of incarceration, as his attorney had requested, “would be a lifetime to me,” Hill told the court moments earlier in asking for the shortest sentence possible.

“We’ve seen a lot of people commit more heinous crimes,” Hill added before his sentencing.

Footage from Lancaster Safety Coalition cameras and from surveillance footage taken inside the bar itself showed Hill walking behind the victim while holding a weapon in his hand, then slashing the victim across the neck shortly after 2 a.m. The victim suffered a seven-inch wound to his neck as a result of the attack.

Police also received an anonymous tip that corroborated the story that Hill had argued with the victim after the two bumped into one another inside the bar. The tipster also told police Hill later bragged about slashing the victim’s neck, saying that he “didn’t see it coming.”

Lancaster City Bureau of Police Officer Ryan Burgett filed the charges.