Vandergrift man challenges manslaughter charge related to his weeks-old son's death

A Vandergrift man awaiting trial on charges that he killed his 5-week-old baby last year claims he broke no laws and that his case should be dismissed.

Owen LaBrenn Copney, 27, was charged last March with felony counts of involuntary manslaughter and child endangerment in connection with the death of his son.

Police said Copney fell asleep on a couch with the child on his chest Sept. 17, 2018 at his Vandergrift home and when he awoke he found the baby unresponsive wedged under his arm.

The baby, Isaiah, died two days later from injuries related to suffocation from unsafe sleep, according to testimony from a preliminary hearing last year.

Prosecutors said an autopsy report officially determined the baby’s cause of death as “Sudden Unexplained Infant Death” (SUID).

Defense attorney David Regoli in court documents filed Thursday said evidence against Copney does not suggest that a crime was committed.

“The only evidence offered was that the child passed away while sleeping on petitioner’s chest due to SUID, not as a direct result of any unlawful act of the petitioner nor due to any violation of a duty of care, protection or support,” Regoli wrote.

According to court records, Copney told police he had been warned by the baby’s mother to not fall asleep with the child on his chest. The mother, who lived with her son in Leechburg, had dropped off the baby with his father earlier that day, police said.

The trial for Copney, who is free on bail, is tentatively scheduled to begin in April.

Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio said she will conduct a hearing next month to consider the defense request to dismiss the charges.