Beer-guzzling baby nets probation sentence for Greensburg man

The lawyer for a Greensburg man told a judge on Tuesday his client didn’t even know there was a baby in his home when police found the 9-month-old girl guzzling a beer.

Defense attorney Brian Aston said Reed Marino Smith was as a surprised as police officers when they spotted the baby drinking from a Flat Tire Beer bottle as they searched his home on suspicion of illegal drug possession.

Smith, 23, was scheduled for a nonjury trial on Tuesday but pleaded guilty to lesser drug offenses after prosecutors agreed to dismiss a misdemeanor count of child endangerment.

“He didn’t know the child was there,” Aston said, explaining that Smith had allowed a friend to stay over at his home and was unaware that she left without the child when he went outside to intervene in a fight between two men.

“It wasn’t even a girlfriend, it was a girl who needed a place to stay,” Aston told the judge.

Prosecutors had a different view of the case.

Assistant District Attorney Leo Ciaramitaro said officers responding to the fight detected an odor of marijuana from Smith’s home and asked to search it for illegal drugs. Once inside they found the baby drinking from a bottle and wearing a beer-stained shirt. Police also found a small amount of marijuana and drug paraphernalia in the home.

Smith admitted to babysitting, police said in court documents.

According to court records, the child’s mother had left her daughter with Smith while she ran an errand in Monroeville.

“He admits he was in charge of the child,” Ciaramitaro said.

Smith pleaded guilty after Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Christopher Feliciani indicated he was likely to dismiss the case after the prosecution’s lone witness failed to appear in court Tuesday because of a scheduling conflict.

Feliciani sentenced Smith to serve a year on probation and ordered he have no contact with children.