Jury selection in a 2018 Vandergrift fatal shooting is set to start April 20.
Attorneys on Friday set the date for trial to begin for Ashley Croft, 38, of Vandergrift. She is charged with homicide in the death of John Edward Smail, 31, of Greensburg, at her apartment on Oct. 18, 2018.
“I believe both the Commonwealth and defense are prepared to proceed,” Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro told Judge Scott Mears.
The pair and defense attorney Patrick Thomassey plan to meet Tuesday to discuss pretrial motions. Ciaramitaro said the trial should take four to five days.
Police said they found Smail fatally shot near the Longfellow Street apartment’s back door.
A witness reported seeing Croft with a gun in her hands in the backyard, and another person told police that Croft claimed to have killed her cousin, according to court papers.
Police said Croft told them she was under the influence when she pulled a handgun out of her purse and shot at Smail several times.
Authorities reported finding three spent shell casings and two handguns at the apartment.
Croft is charged with homicide and, if convicted, faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
She previously rejected a guilty plea offer from prosecutors, Thomassey said during a court appearance in 2019. She opted to go to trial rather than accept a deal to plead guilty to third-degree murder and serve 30 to 60 years in jail.
Thomassey said during a November court appearance that he was pursuing a psychiatric defense after her family pulled together money for a forensic psychiatrist.
