The youngest member of the “Greensburg Six” that committed the the torture and murder of a woman in 2010 has been resentenced after a U.S. Supreme Court decision threw the constitutionality of her life term into question because she was a juvenile when the killing occurred.
Angela Marinucci, 29, will now spend 60 years to life in prison following her sentencing Tuesday by Westmoreland County Common Pleas Judge Rita Hathaway.
Marinucci, who was 17 at the time of the crime, has twice been sentenced to serve life without parole for her role — along with five others — in killing Jennifer Daugherty, 30. She was challenging whether that sentence is cruel and unusual punishment since she was a juvenile at the time of the crime.
The sentence includes the 12 years Marinucci has already served and would make her eligible for parole in 2070. Marinucci’s defense attorney, Michael DeMatt, said he plans to appeal the decision.
Marinucci, who appeared in the courtroom via video, did not have any visible reaction to her new sentence.
Before the sentenced was handed down, Marinucci spoke in her own defense, apologizing for her role in the murder and saying that she has changed during her time in prison.
“I apologize for my part in the taking of Jennifer Daugherty’s life,” Marinucci said. “I know that putting my hands on Jennifer was very wrong. I know I could have handled things differently on that day, and she should still be [alive].”
Marinucci said she has learned to have better control of her anger and emotions in prison and continues to work with a therapist. She noted that she joined a Bible study group
“I’m a work in progress and each day I learn something about myself,” she said. “I am willing to earn the trust of the court, of Jennifer Daugherty’s family and the community. I will prove to you and the community that I will be a productive member of society in the future.”
Louis Martone, a clinical psychiatrist who has evaluated Marinucci, said her time in prison has allowed for rehabilitation.
“It is my opinion that she does have capacity for change and has illustrated that throughout her incarceration,” Mr. Martone said.
Judge Hathaway, however, did not see it the same way.
The judge said Marinucci was nearly 18 at the time of the murder and knew exactly what she was doing. She said Marinucci wanted Ms. Daugherty dead and lured her to Greensburg to be killed.
Judge Hathaway said Marinucci can manipulate her behavior to get what she wants and has never taken full responsibility for her actions.
“To this day, the defense denies the total role she plays in the murder of Jennifer Daugherty,” Judge Hathaway said.
Prosecutors asked for the maximum allowable sentence for Marinucci, which, when adding up the allowable time for the crimes for which she was convicted — including first degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder — was 60 years.
Joy Burkholder, Ms. Daugherty’s sister, said even though the family wanted a sentence of life without parole, it had confidence in the justice system, noting that there was no guarantee Marinucci would ever be free. The new sentence was worthy of her sister, she said.
“This wasn’t an accident,” Ms. Burkholder said. “This was not something that somebody stumbled upon. This was a very conscious decision to do horrible, heinous things.”
Marinucci was initially ordered to serve a mandatory sentence of life without parole by Judge Hathaway in 2011.
However, because Marinucci was a juvenile at the time of the crime, the state Superior Court ordered that she be resentenced under the U.S. Supreme Court decision that found that mandatory life without parole prison terms for juveniles were unconstitutional. Under that case, Miller v. Alabama, the court said that the sentencing judge must consider a variety of factors in fashioning punishment for a juvenile, including education, family history and amenability to treatment. The case did not, however, prohibit all life without parole penalties for juveniles.
At resentencing, on July 1, 2015, Judge Hathaway again ordered Marinucci to serve life without parole.
In October 2016, the state Superior Court upheld that sentence, but the following year the state Supreme Court remanded the case to the Superior Court with instructions to look only at the question of whether it is cruel and unusual punishment.
Marinucci and her co-defendants, two of whom have been sentenced to death, lured Ms. Daugherty to a filthy apartment in Greensburg where they bound her with Christmas lights and forced her to drink cocktails of pills, urine, feces and soap. She was eventually stabbed to death.
Judge Hathaway, who has overseen the case for more than a decade, said nothing in her 25 year career as a judge and years more as a prosecutor has had a greater impact on her emotional well-being.
“I can’t think of one case that has been as troubling, or one case that caused me the nightmares,” Judge Hathaway said. “You don’t get immune to it, these facts. You don’t get used to it.”
Andrew Goldstein: agoldstein@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1352.
First Published: June 1, 2022, 10:08 a.m.
Updated: June 1, 2022, 10:26 a.m.