A 22-year-old Montgomery County man who repeatedly drove his SUV into a Plymouth Township police officer in a hotel parking lot last year — striking the officer again as the wounded officer tried to treat his own leg — was sentenced on Thursday, November 12, to 25 to 50 years in state prison. Dalton Lee Janiczek, of Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania, had pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempting to kill Plymouth Township Police Officer Jake Hennessey, NBC10 Philadelphia reported.
Source: NBC10 Philadelphia, Nov 12, 2026
The sentence was imposed after Janiczek accepted a plea deal ahead of his trial, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported, via Glenside Local. He pleaded “guilty but mentally ill” to attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault, and fleeing and eluding. Under that designation he will receive psychiatric care during his sentence. Jury selection in his trial had been expected to begin on November 16 — the plea closed the case days before a jury was to be picked.
October 24, 2025: the hotel parking lot
The attack happened on the afternoon of October 24, 2025, outside the DoubleTree Guest Suites Hotel on Fountain Road in Plymouth Township, in the Plymouth Meeting area. Officer Hennessey had responded at about 12:39 p.m. in search of a Mercedes G-Wagon, NBC10 reported. A Whitpain Township officer had found Janiczek's vehicle parked at the hotel following reports of erratic driving, according to the Inquirer's coverage.
Source: NBC10 Philadelphia, Nov 12, 2026
Officials said Janiczek put his vehicle in reverse and struck the police car several times. When the officer got out and told him to stop, Janiczek drove directly at the officer, attempting to hit him. The officer fired his weapon at the vehicle but did not stop it. Janiczek kept accelerating and hit the officer — and then, as the injured officer lay on the ground trying to apply a tourniquet to a leg wound, Janiczek returned and struck him three additional times, the Inquirer reported. Janiczek also struck a Plymouth Township police car during the incident, injuring another officer, NBC10 reported, before he was stopped and arrested. Part of the incident was captured on cellphone video.
Five surgeries, and in court to hear the sentence
Despite five surgeries and living each day in pain, Officer Hennessey attended Thursday's sentencing in person, NBC10 reported. Investigators built the case from interviews with numerous officers and witnesses, and from police bodycam, dashcam and bystander video and extensive evidence collected at the scene, District Attorney Kevin R. Steele's office said. In November 2025, Steele announced that an investigation had found the officer's use of force — firing at the vehicle — was lawful.
Mental illness at the centre of the defence
Janiczek, a 2022 graduate of La Salle College High School in Wyndmoor and the son of Center City civil defence attorney Lee Janiczek, was diagnosed with bipolar disorder “with psychotic features,” his lawyer said. The defence argued that he had been improperly released from Montgomery County Emergency Services after being involuntarily committed shortly before the encounter with police. Janiczek addressed the court on Thursday and said he was unaware of his mental illness; his lawyer said he had claimed he refused to take his medication at the time, NBC10 reported. The “guilty but mentally ill” plea means the court accepted both his guilt and his mental illness — he serves a normal prison sentence, with psychiatric care provided during it.
What prosecutors pointed to before that day
District Attorney Steele said Janiczek “had been involved in several incidents in Montgomery and surrounding counties, including one call to 911 where the operator of the Mercedes G63 said he wanted to blow up a police station and harm/kill police officers.” Court records show 11 criminal charges against him since 2023, most of them related to reckless driving, according to the Inquirer's reporting. Prosecutors presented that history as part of the background to a case in which a routine response to erratic-driving reports ended with an officer fighting for his life in a parking lot.
Known: Dalton Janiczek, 22, was sentenced Nov 12 to 25–50 years after pleading guilty but mentally ill to attempted murder of a law enforcement officer, aggravated assault and fleeing/eluding for the Oct 24, 2025 attack on Officer Jake Hennessey, who has had five surgeries. Not reported: any further hearing date, and any statement from Janiczek beyond his remark in court that he was unaware of his mental illness.
What happens next
Janiczek now begins a 25-to-50-year state prison sentence, with psychiatric care during the term under the guilty-but-mentally-ill designation. The plea means there will be no trial — jury selection, set for November 16, will not take place. Neither report on Thursday announced any further court date in the case. For Plymouth Township, the sentencing closes the criminal case that began with one of the most violent attacks on a suburban Philadelphia officer in recent years — an attack its victim survived, and came to court to hear sentenced, after five surgeries.