Ready for trial, Reading man instead enters guilty plea

A Reading, Berks County, resident, set to go on trial this week in Carbon County court, changed his mind and instead entered a guilty plea to one of the charges he was facing.

Matthew S. Setley, 43, pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal trespass, a felony 2, before Judge Joseph J. Matika, as a jury panel waited to hear the case in another courtroom.

Mahoning Township police charged Setley with entering a home along Mahoning Drive West on July 20, 2017. Removed from the residence was an electronic device and various tools.

In exchange for the plea the district attorney’s office dropped counts of burglary, theft and receiving stolen property.

Matika deferred sentencing and ordered the adult probation office to prepare a presentence investigation report. Sentencing is scheduled for June 21 at 9 a.m.