Judge grants Brentt Sherwood new trial in 2005 murder case

Apr. 5—SUNBURY — Brentt M. Sherwood, who was convicted and sentenced to death in 2007 for the beating death of his 4-year-old stepdaughter, should receive a new trial, a senior judge has ruled.

Senior Judge Harold F. Woelfel, Jr., issued his decision on April 2. The state has 30 days to appeal the judge's ruling.

Sherwood, 40, a former Northumberland resident, was sentenced to death in May 2007 after a Northumberland County jury convicted him of first-degree murder in the December 2004 beating death Marlee Reed.

During the trial, Sherwood admitted punching and kicking the child repeatedly in their Northumberland home, but claimed he was high on cocaine and did not mean to kill her.

Sherwood had been seeking relief from a conviction of first-degree murder and the imposition of the death penalty and had originally listed 106 reasons why he should be awarded a new trial, including ineffective counsel, according to a 342-page Post Conviction Relief Act motion that was initially filed in 2012.

Sherwood, currently incarcerated at State Correctional Institute-Greene in Waynesburg, is one of 152 inmates currently on death row in Pennsylvania, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

On February 13, 2015, Governor Tom Wolf announced a moratorium on executions, citing concerns about innocence, racial bias, and the death penalty's effects on victims' families. Governor Wolf indicated that the moratorium would be implemented by granting reprieves to each death row prisoner who did not receive a stay of execution from the courts, according to the Center.

Sherwood pleaded a diminished capacity due to voluntary intoxication, claiming he was high on cocaine and not mentally able to form an intent to kill.

This is a developing story. More information will be posted as it becomes available.