Calling his crimes cold and calculated, a Bucks County judge sentenced a Philadelphia man on Wednesday to 40 to 80 years in state prison for kidnapping a young man in Upper Southampton Township, then forcing him at knifepoint to drive to an ATM to withdraw money while threatening to kill him and his mother.
Pavel Belous, 38, previously entered an open guilty plea on March 25, 2022, to two counts of attempted homicide and one count each of kidnapping, robbery, simple assault, terroristic threats, theft by unlawful taking and possession of an instrument of crime.
President Judge Wallace H. Bateman Jr. heard from the victim and his mother before handing down sentence.
The victim was 18 when Belous stalked him for about an hour on the night of March 11, 2021, confronting him at knifepoint in the parking lot of a McDonald’s restaurant in Upper Southampton. The ordeal ended only after the victim pulled out his Boy Scout knife and stabbed Belous in the back, an injury that left him paralyzed.