3rd sentencing hearing postponed for woman convicted in Greensburg torture-murder

A third sentencing hearing for the youngest member of group of former Greensburg roommates convicted in the 2010 torture killing of a mental disabled woman has been delayed as state appeal courts continue to weigh the legality of life prison terms for juvenile offenders.

Angela Marinucci, now 27, has been serving a life sentence and appeared in court Tuesday for what would have been a new hearing to determine how long she must remain in prison for her role in the stabbing death of 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty.

Marinucci was 17 at the time of her arrest and, although she was tried and convicted of first-degree murder as an adult, state appeal courts have twice invalidated life without parole sentences imposed by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said the state’s Supreme Court is considering the appeal in another juvenile lifer case that could impact all past and future sentences in similar cases. In that case, the appeals court is weighing the legality of a 50-year to life sentence imposed by the trial judge. Two other appeals involving other juvenile lifers are also pending in the appeals courts, Peck said.

Peck and defense attorney Michael DeMatt, along with the judge, agreed to delay Marinucci’s sentencing until the Supreme Court makes a ruling sometime next year.

“It looks like these cases make it uncertain what the court can do. None of us want to come back again,” Hathaway said.

Marinucci, according to prosecutors, was the person who lured Daugherty to Greensburg and was the instigator of the group that held its victim captive for more than two days, beating, torturing and, eventually, stabbing her to death.

Peck previously said Marinucci could have faced a potential death penalty had she not been a juvenile at the time of her arrest.

State appeal courts have previously invalidated life sentences for juveniles and ruled that only in the most severe cases can a judge consider life prison terms and only when prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that those juveniles cannot be rehabilitated.

The defense has sought a sentence for Marinucci that would allow her to be paroled after serving at least 35 years in prison.