It was exactly one year ago, the prosecutor told a Lancaster County judge on Friday, in which a strange series of events resulted in the death of a young Elizabethtown man.

And one year later, on Friday, two other young men took responsibility for the shooting death of 21-year-old Angelli Brown by pleading guilty to third-degree murder.

Judge James P. Cullen ordered background investigations into both Christopher Long, 23, of Bainbridge, and Phillip J. Bartley, 26, of Elizabethtown, before he imposes sentence. The maximum penalty for third-degree murder is 20 to 40 years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Christopher Hackman told the judge that Long had been romantically involved with a woman with whom he had two children.

The couple apparently had a falling out, Hackman continued, and the woman, Tonya Sager, had become involved with another man, Chris Lighty.

Early in the morning of Oct. 5, 2006, Long, accompanied by his friend Bartley, went looking for Sager and was led to Brown's West High Street apartment. The children were not with Sager, Hackman said.

As they climbed the steps to the apartment, Hackman said he handed the gun to Bartley asking him to cover him.

Around 1 a.m., as Brown opened the door to his apartment, the court was told, Long saw Sager and Lighty lying on the sofa. Words were exchanged.

"Brown was pleading with them to leave," Hackman said, because he was afraid of being kicked out of the apartment building. Long and Bartley began banging on the walls and other doors in the hallway.

Brown went back inside his apartment, Hackman said, "comes out with a baseball bat and takes a swing at Long."

At that point, the witnesses' accounts differ, Hackman said, with some saying that Long fired the handgun at Brown, others indicating it was Bartley.

Either way, Brown was shot once, stumbled back into his apartment and died. Police at the time said Lighty called 911 as Brown's girlfriend, Kelly Cochran, held his head.

Long and Bartley fled to Lebanon County and disposed of the gun — which, the court was told, had been legally purchased and owned by Long.

Defense attorney Christopher Patterson said Long contacted him and surrendered to police a short time later, as did Bartley, who is represented by defense attorney David Blanck.

Patterson said his client has shown "nothing but regret and remorse," for the incident. Long's mother, the attorney noted, has been supportive and is caring for the children.

"This is a tragedy for everyone involved," Patterson told the judge.

Brown was the father of two children, a 20-month-old girl and a 4-day-old boy, at the time of his death.

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