A Lancaster County judge spared a teenager prison Tuesday after the youth pleaded guilty to robbing the Amish occupants of a pair of horse-drawn buggies last year in southern Lancaster County.

Joseph P. Garvey, who was 16 when he committed the strong-arm robberies in May 2007, was placed on probation for five years. Standing before Judge Margaret C. Miller, the Nottingham teen pleaded guilty to two felony robbery charges.

Garvey, now 18, and his cousin wielded baseball bats while threatening buggy riders in Fulton and East Drumore townships.

The first group of buggy occupants were headed to work; the second buggy carried a young couple showing their newborn child around the community, according to prior testimony.

According to state sentencing guidelines, Garvey could have received a stiff prison term. Guidelines call for a minimum standard-range sentence of 12 to 20 months in prison for each robbery. The maximum standard-range sentence for both robberies is 48 to 80 months in prison, according to prosecutors.

The Pennsylvania Commission on Sentencing provides guidelines to judges to create a consistent and rational statewide sentencing policy, according to the PCS mission statement. The guidelines consider the severity of offenses and a defendant's prior criminal history.

Garvey has no prior criminal record.

His co-defendant, Christopher Lewis of Rising Sun, Md., was sentenced in April to 1½ to 5 years in state prison for the same offenses. At that hearing, the two Amish buggy operators asked County Judge Jeffery D. Wright to show leniency toward Lewis.

There was no testimony from the victims Tuesday, prosecutors said. Garvey was apologetic and wept throughout much of the hearing, according to prosecutors.

Pennsylvania State Police charged Garvey as an adult in October 2007, and he was prosecuted as an adult.

According to previous court testimony, the crimes happened like this:

The teenage males approached the buggies as two girls sat in a nearby getaway vehicle. Both males were armed with bats when they confronted the occupants.

Steven Stoltzfus, 24, was operating the first buggy on Little Britain Church Road in Fulton Township. The robbers took Stoltzfus' wallet, which contained $2.

Stoltzfus' co-worker fled the buggy and asked the occupants of a nearby car for help. As it turned out, it was the getaway car carrying the teenage girls. The girls told Stoltzfus they did not have a cell phone and could not help.

About 30 minutes later, the robbers targeted a buggy on Conowingo Road in East Drumore Township. David Kauffman, 20, his wife and infant child were in that buggy. The robbers escaped with $200 in cash and other items.

No one was injured during the robberies.

At a prior hearing, Lewis' mother said the males were "showing off" for the girls when they committed the robberies.

The girls also were charged for their roles in the crimes, and their cases are believed to still be pending, according to prosecutors.

E-mail: bhambright@lnpnews.com