Convicted violent sexual predator Jack Covert is not entitled to a “discount” of consecutive sentences involving six separate cases following jury convictions and plea agreements of sexually assaulting multiple girls and possessing child sexual abuse materials, the Pennsylvania Superior Court ruled.
The appellate court upheld Covert’s sentence of 52 years, six months to 112 years in state prison imposed by Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas Judge David W. Lupas in January 2025.
Covert, 67, formerly of Second Street, Dallas Township, was convicted by separate Luzerne County juries and pleaded no contest to other charges in sexually assaulting, and in some cases raping, children in the 1990s and early 2000s.
Covert appealed the decades-long sentence, claiming it was excessive and his age and health were not considered. Covert further argued in his appeal that he should have received a “discount sentence.”
A three-member panel of the Superior Court, in a 12-page ruling issued Friday, rejected Covert’s appeal.
“After review of the record, we determined that (Lupas) did not abuse its discretion. (Lupas’) imposition of an aggregate sentence of 52 and one-half years to 112 years’ imprisonment is not grossly disparate” to Covert’s decades of sexual abuse against multiple child victims, nor does it viscerally appear as patently unreasonable. … (Lupas) properly determined that a lengthy term of imprisonment was essential to vindicate the devastating impact Covert’s crimes had on the victims’ lives as well as to protect the public from Covert,” the Superior Court panel ruled.
Covert’s jury convictions and subsequent plea agreements were the result of several arrests by the Dallas Township Police Department.
