Penn Township woman arrested in connection with stabbing at Trafford tavern

A Penn Township woman is behind bars after, police say, she stabbed a man at a Trafford tavern early Wednesday.

Brenda Renee Stitt, 45, was found by officers hiding in an upstairs room at Anthony’s Hotel & Tavern. She is charged with aggravated assault, hindering apprehension, conspiracy and related offenses.

Borough police were called to the Brinton Avenue business around 12:30 a.m. for a reported stabbing and found a man bleeding from a chest wound. He was taken by ambulance to AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville, police said.

Witnesses told police Stitt — who was there with Daniel E. Magill, 45, of Trafford — and the stabbed man were arguing earlier in the night and Stitt slapped him. Later, Stitt stepped in front of the man as he was walking to a restroom and stabbed him, according to court papers. She quickly paid her tab and fled with Magill, who was renting a room upstairs, police said.

Magill denied knowing Stitt’s whereabouts, but officers said they found her hiding in a bathroom. Magill told investigators that he hid the knife in a tractor at a nearby business, according to court papers. Police recovered the knife.

Magill is charged with hindering apprehension, tampering with evidence, conspiracy and related offenses. He is being held at the Westmoreland County Prison on $10,000 bond. Stitt’s bond was set at $100,000. Neither had an attorney listed in online court records. Preliminary hearings are set for March 30.

Magill was sentenced in September to one year less a day to two years less a day in the county jail followed by three years of probation for choking a teenage girl two years ago, according to online court records.

Stitt does not have a criminal history in Pennsylvania.