New sentence for woman who rolled on toddler

The Superior Court has ruled that a Mahanoy City woman who was convicted of killing a toddler in 2016 when she rolled onto her from a sofa must be resentenced.

A Schuylkill County jury on June 28, 2017, convicted Pietrina C. Hoffman, 55, of third-degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, aggravated assault, two counts of endangering the welfare of a child, two counts of recklessly endangering another person, and person not to possess a firearm.

She was sentenced to 17-34 years in state prison.

The trial court on Nov. 20, 2017, granted her appeal that prosecutors failed to present sufficient evidence of malice, required to establish third-degree murder and aggravated assault.

The appeal resulted in her sentence being vacated and a new one of five years and nine months to 12 years in prison imposed.

But Hoffman also appealed that sentence, and on Oct. 31, a panel of three state Superior Court judges, Judge Maria McLaughlin, President Judge Emeritus John T. Bender and Senior Judge Eugene B. Strassburger III, agreed.

At issue this time were two counts of third-degree felony child endangerment charges.

Hoffman contends the charges should have been classed as misdemeanors, not felonies.

The judges agreed.

“Neither of the child endangerment counts alleged a course of conduct,” McLaughlin wrote.

“We conclude the trial court imposed an illegal sentence when it sentenced Hoffman (on) two counts of endangering the welfare of children, graded as felonies of the third degree. Accordingly, we vacate the judgment of sentence and remand for resentencing,” she wrote in the 22-page opinion.

She is scheduled to be resentenced at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 6 before President Judge William E. Baldwin.

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 14-month-old Nevaeh N. Doyle, for whom she was caring.

It was alleged that another young child for whom Hoffman was caring was malnourished, but that charge was not sufficiently proven, according to the ruling.

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.