After murder charge dropped, Mahanoy defendant gets 5-12 years in toddler death

A Mahanoy City woman who smothered to death a toddler when she rolled from the couch onto the girl will spend the next five years and nine months to 12 years in state prison.

That’s less than half the minimum of the 16 to 32-year sentence originally imposed on Pietrina C. Hoffman, 54, after her June 28 conviction on charges stemming from the Jan. 9, 2016, death of 14-month-old Nevaeh N. Doyle.

Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin on Nov. 21 overturned the two most serious charges of which Hoffman had been convicted — third-degree murder and aggravated assault.

He wrote that prosecutors did not provide sufficient evidence to support the establishment beyond a reasonable doubt of malice, a requirement for conviction in both charges, he said.

On Wednesday, he sentenced Hoffman on the remaining charges: involuntary manslaughter, persons not to possess or use firearms, two counts of endangering the welfare of children and two counts of recklessly endangering another person.

He gave Hoffman 69 to 144 months, with credit for the 618 days she’s already served.

“That doesn’t mean you’re not responsible for the death of that child,” Baldwin said of the acquittals.

Hoffman, cuffed, shackled and in prison khaki, wiped away tears as she was led away by sheriff’s deputies.

District Attorney Christine A. Holman said she will immediately appeal Baldwin’s ruling overturning the convictions.

Outside the courtroom, Holman said she was “shocked” and “disappointed” by the acquittals.

Referring to Baldwin’s statement that jurors might not have grasped the meaning of malice in the legal sense, Holman described the panel as “astute jurors who can understand what the law is.”

She said prosecutors “wrangled with the charges from the beginning.”

Hoffman originally planned to plead guilty, but Baldwin rejected it because the negotiated 10- to 20-year sentence wasn’t enough, so the deal was dropped, Holman said.

At Wednesday’s sentencing, Hoffman’s defense lawyer, Kent D. Watkins, asked for four to six years prison time. Holman asked for eight to 16 years.

According to court documents and testimony, Hoffman took a cocktail of muscle relaxants, morphine and a liquid sleep aid before falling asleep the night of Jan. 9, 2016, and rolling off the couch onto Nevaeh.

Hoffman told police she realized Nevaeh had stopped breathing at about 5 a.m. Jan. 10. But she made coffee, let the dogs out and then went back to sleep until about 2 p.m. Then called her husband, who was away, before calling 911.