Beltzhoover man pleads guilty in shooting death of 3-year-old last year
A Beltzhoover man who went to sleep with a shotgun under his pillow pleaded guilty Tuesday to accidentally killing a 3-year-old girl.
Marlin Pritchard, 52, pleaded guilty to third-degree murder and person not to possess a firearm in the death of Chassity Clancy.
He will be sentenced by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Kelly Bigley on June 17.
Chassity died after 1 a.m. on the morning of Feb. 9, 2020.
Pritchard’s girlfriend, Veronica Anglin, told police she had been babysitting Chassity and another girl that night at Pritchard’s home on East Warrington Avenue, said Deputy District Attorney Stephanie Ramaley.
Anglin put the girls in bed, and then she laid down — parallel with the headboard, across the foot of the bed — around 9 p.m.
When Pritchard got home, Anglin told police he laid down with his head on her hip and fell asleep.
“Anglin said she fell asleep and woke up by the sound of a loud noise and the sound of glass breaking. She jumped up and yelled ‘what was that?’” Ramaley told the court. “At this time, she observed Pritchard standing on the left side of the bed near Chassity screaming ‘I killed her, I shot her, it’s my fault.’ She observed Pritchard holding Chassity and screaming ‘call 911.’”
She had been shot in the right side of her neck.
Pritchard picked up the girl, told her to wake up and saw blood in her mouth.
Two other adults and another child were in the house when the shooting occurred. They were not hurt and cooperated with investigators.
When officers arrived, Pritchard directed them to the shotgun, which he had moved outside, and placed inside tires behind his house, Ramaley said.
Pritchard, who cried throughout his entire interview, told police he went to bed with the sawed-off shotgun for protection because he’d been threatened a day earlier by someone he was doing work for. He told police he works in construction.
Pritchard told police, “‘What do you want, man? This is my fault.’”
He has remained at the Allegheny County Jail since his arrest.
Paula Reed Ward is a TribLive reporter covering federal and Allegheny County courts. She joined the Trib in 2020 after spending nearly 17 years at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, where she was part of a Pulitzer Prize-winning team. She is the author of “Death by Cyanide.” She can be reached at pward@triblive.com.
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