Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Woman sentenced for role in murder
Judge to Mariah Walton: ‘You made the decision to enter the world of drug dealing and violence’
NORRISTOWN A Pottstown woman who ran a drug trafficking business with her onetime paramour is on her way to state prison for playing a role in the murder of another man during a dispute about money related to the drug deals.
Mariah Anne Walton, 23, of the 600 block of State Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to nine to 20 years in state prison on charges of third-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with the March 20, 2015, gunshot slaying of Artie Bradley in Pottstown.
“The life that was lost here, that impacts his family forever. You made the decision to enter the world of drug dealing and violence,” Judge Wendy Demchick Alloy addressed Walton during a hearing at the county’s Youth Center in West Norriton. “It’s truly unfortunate a life had to be lost in the midst of this.”
The judge added, however, that in fashioning a sentence she did consider Walton’s eventual cooperation with prosecutors when Walton testified against her former boyfriend Richard Allen “Bub” Collins, who delivered the fatal shots to Bradley during a confrontation at Washington and Beech streets. Collins, 38, of Philadelphia, was convicted of first-degree murder at a trial earlier this year and is serving a life prison sentence.
“I’m not unmindful it’s a selfish save my own skin approach … but you were a powerful witness and helped cinch the commonwealth’s conviction,” Demchick-Alloy addressed Walton.
The most damning evidence against Collins came when Walton testified she observed Collins approach and fatally shoot Bradley, 38, of North Charlotte Street, during a late evening confrontation over the drug debt.
“I watched you testify. I listened to what you said and I find