5/23/17
by News Department on 05/23/17Woman freed on $1 bail...
A Mahanoy City woman accused of smothering her toddler granddaughter last year is free on $1 bail because she wasn’t brought to trial within six months of her arrest.
Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin on Friday determined 53 year old Pietrina C. Hoffman qualified for the nominal bail under the Pennsylvania Rules of Criminal Procedure.
According to court documents, emergency medical crews found 15-month-old Nevaeh Doyle dead at 2:20 p.m. Jan. 10 when they arrived in response to a report of pediatric cardiac arrest. An autopsy determined that Nevaeh died due to asphyxia by smothering.
A 2-year-old also found in the home was given to Schuylkill County Children and Youth Services who arranged for a medical evaluation of the child, which revealed she was in the early stages of starvation.
Hoffman had been held in the county jail without bail since Feb. 12, 2016.
Her trial on third-degree murder and other charges is scheduled for June 27.
