DA: No death penalty for 2 in woman’s death

Associated Press

MEADVILLE, Pa.

A northeastern Pennsylvania prosecutor has decided not to seek the death penalty against two women charged in the death of an Ohio woman found buried in a shallow grave last spring.

The Erie Times-News says Crawford County District Attorney Francis Schultz says a “brutal” attack led to the death of 20-year-old Brandy Stevens of Beaver Township, Ohio.

But he says there was insufficient evidence to support any of the aggravating circumstances that would allow prosecutors to pursue capital punishment against 20-year-old Ashley Barber and 18-year-old Jade Olmstead, who waived a preliminary hearing Friday.

Prosecutors allege that they invited Stevens to their Cochranton-area home in May but beat and choked her and then rolled her into a shallow grave, where they tried to drown her before she eventually suffocated.