Beaver County man pleads guilty to federal charges he abused care home residents
A Beaver County man pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges that he abused intellectually disabled residents at a care home where he worked as an aid.
Tyler Smith, 33, of New Brighton, will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan on March 25.
The negotiated plea agreement in the case calls for Smith to serve five to 10 years in federal prison.
Smith and Zachary Dinell, 29, formerly of Freedom and currently being housed at the State Correctional Institution at Mercer, were charged in a 12-count federal indictment with abusing at least 13 residents at McGuire Memorial, a residential medical facility in Beaver County’s Daugherty Township. It has about 50 patients.
Smith began working there in May 2015, while Dinell started 13 months later.
They worked as part of the direct care staff, assisting residents with tasks such as feeding, bathing, dressing and oral hygiene.
The indictment against Dinell and Smith said they physically abused patients — punching them, kicking them in the face, choking them and rubbing hand sanitizer in their eyes and mouths — between June 2016 and September 2017,
Federal prosecutors said the defendants used cellphones to record the abuse and exchanged text messages describing what they had done.
On March 7, 2017, the indictment said Dinell wrote to Smith, “I‘m going to (expletive) murder (a particular resident). I choked the (expletive) out of him, and now he’s coughing and yelling.”
Smith responded, “(Expletive) kill him dude, he’s better off.”
Dinell pleaded guilty to all 12 counts against him in October 2022 and was ordered to serve 17 years in federal prison.
Smith pleaded guilty to two counts — violating the Hate Crimes Prevention Act and conspiracy.
Assistant Federal Public Defender Linda E.J. Cohn told Ranjan that while her client pleaded guilty to conspiracy, the vast majority of the violent acts were committed by Dinell.
Still, added, “He acknowledges his actions encouraged Zachary Dinell’s conduct.”
Smith will remain free on bond pending sentencing.
In addition to the prison term, the plea agreement calls for Smith to serve three years of supervised release following incarceration.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of "Death by Cyanide." She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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