Greensburg woman receives jail sentence for drug possession that led to spouse's overdose death

Jodie Graft had a simple message to the woman she still blames for her daughter’s overdose death last year in Greensburg.

Graft, sobbing, peered over a Plexiglass shield, looked directly at Mary Crimboli-Baker as she stood next her defense lawyer in a Westmoreland County courtroom, and said she wished it was her and not her daughter who did not survive their use of fentanyl-laced heroin last February.

“Why did she wake up and not my daughter? It’s just not fair,” Graft said during a guilty plea and sentencing hearing before Judge Christopher Feliciani. “You get to go home and see your daughter. You better tell her you love her before something happens to you.”

Crimboli-Baker pleaded guilty Wednesday to a lesser charge of drug possession as prosecutors said her cooperation with police warranted dismissal of a more serious felony charge of drug delivery resulting in death.

Crimboli-Baker’s wife, 32-year-old Justine Baker, died Feb. 11, 2020, after she was found unresponsive in the couple’s Greensburg apartment following the use of drugs purchased a day earlier.

Crimboli-Baker, 34, told police she bought 12 bags of heroin from another Greensburg woman, Jamie Lynn Dickant. Investigators said Crimboli-Baker exchanged pills and paid $60 for the drugs that was left by Dickant’s mother in a mailbox.

“I am so sorry for everything. I loved her and I miss her,” said Crimboli-Baker. “This has affected me too, a great deal.”

Crimboli-Baker was sentenced to serve one year, less a day, to two years less a day in the county jail and two additional years on probation.

Feliciani said Crimboli-Baker, who has already served seven months in jail since her arrest, will be given credit for that time and said she will be paroled two weeks early to ensure she is transferred to an in-patient drug and alcohol treatment program.

Dickant, 35, of Greensburg pleaded guilty to drug delivery resulting in death in December and was sentenced by Feliciani to serve 7 to 14 years in prison.

Dickant’s mother, Rita Dickant, 63, of Greensburg pleaded guilty on Feb. 9 to one count of conspiracy and was sentenced by Feliciani to serve up to six months in jail. She was paroled after given credit for time served since her arrest in April. She also was ordered to serve three years on probation.

“She (Crimboli-Baker) provided substantial cooperation in this case, including giving police information where the drugs came from and allowed them to go up the ladder,” said Westmoreland County Assistant District Attorney Pete Caravello.