A teen sentenced earlier this month to a five-year prison sentence for rioting at a Fairfield youth detention facility now is seeking leniency based on his early childhood history in a Bhutanese refugee camp.

The attorney for 16-year-old Rockey Magar in court documents contends he discovered information following his client’s May 15 sentencing hearing.

The informtion could have impacted the judge’s decision that ordered him to serve 2-to-5 years in state prison, according to defense attorney Andrew Skala.

Magar pleaded guilty in January to charges of causing a catastrophe, rioting, institutional vandalism and making terroristic threats in connection to a riot at the Outside In School of Experiential Learning on Jan. 4, 2025.

Prosecutors said Magar punched a juvenile staff member in the jaw during what authorities contended was a violent riot that included among more than two dozen youth residents.

Police said teens threatened to kill staff members, used a floor lamp as a weapon and wielded pencils and broken glass in the melee while others reportedly used wooden handles and spoons as weapons as juveniles ran and fought through the hallways of the facility.

Magar was one of 15 juveniles charged in connection to the riot. He was the lone juvenile to be prosecuted as an adult.

Skala contends Magar was born in a refugee camp in Nepal, and lived there until the age of 4 when he and his family moved to the United States. Between 2008 to 2017, about 96,000 Bhutanese refugees were resettled across the country.

“The defendant’s uncle informed (defense attorney Andrew Skala) that the defendant’s family and defendant belonged to a Bhutanese refugee community who faced violent and political prosecution from Bhutan,” according to the appeal.

During Magar’s sentencing hearing, the Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio said she had no explanation for Magar’s actions. She wondered aloud what contributed to the teen’s violent behavior at the detention facility and repeated disciplinary actions while incarcerated at the Lawrence County Jail after his arrest.

Skala, in his request for leniency, said the new information about Magar’s past provides was not part of the teen’s juvenile criminal record from Dauphin County and might answer the judge’s question.

“There is a stigma among Nepali men regarding certain issues pertaining to mental illness/trauma,” Skala wrote. He suggested the judge should reconsider Magar’s background to craft a modified sentence.