Erie DA wants court to OK woman’s sentence

ERIE, Pa. (AP) — Erie County’s district attorney wants the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to reinstate a Detroit-area woman’s nine- to 18-year prison sentence for killing her newborn daughter.

Earlier this month, a Superior Court panel vacated the sentence against 21-year-old Teri Rhodes of Commerce Township, Mich.

Rhodes pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the August 2007 death. Rhodes was a volleyball player at Mercyhurst College who hid her pregnancy and killed the newborn after giving birth in a campus apartment.

The Superior Court panel said Judge William Cunningham may have “prejudged” the case and sentenced Rhodes more severely than necessary.

District Attorney Jack Daneri on Thursday asked the Supreme Court to find, instead, that the Superior Court erred.