Woman in prison for role in Pottstown robbery, assault

NORRISTOWN » A Philadelphia woman who took part in a robbery and assault in Pottstown with two borough residents, during which one man stabbed another man, has been sentenced to prison for her role in the incident.

Yanerie Hernandez, 18, of Diamond Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 2½ to 6 years in a state correctional facility after she pleaded guilty to charges of robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery in connection with a January 2019 incident in the borough.

“A state sentence was important due to the extremely violent nature of this case. It was very important for us to obtain state sentences for all three of the defendants involved,” Assistant District Attorney Evan Correia said.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill accepted a sentencing agreement that was reached between Correia and defense lawyer Patrick McMenamin. Hernandez, who was 17 at the time of the incident, cooperated with authorities after her arrest and was the least culpable in the incident.

Hernandez was charged as an adult because of the violent nature of the crime. O’Neill previously turned down a request by McMenamin to transfer Hernandez’s case to juvenile court.

McMenamin suggested there were mitigating factors in Hernandez’s favor, including her dysfunctional childhood that included being “bounced around from foster home to foster home from an early age.” McMenamin argued Hernandez was “let down” by Philadelphia child social service agencies.

“This is a real unfortunate case. She suffered horrible abuse in her life and it’s not really surprising, that when you throw a child into this system and provide no guidance and no treatment, no assistance and no help, that she ended up in this situation,” McMenamin said.

“I think the DA’s office, in the end, recognized the extreme mitigation in this case and I think that they were reasonable in the final plea negotiations,” McMenamin added.

McMenamin said he hopes state corrections officials don’t fail Hernandez.

“I hope that they get her the treatment and the counseling and the vocational training that she needs to be productive and to be a responsible adult,” McMenamin added.

Hernandez apologized for her conduct before learning her fate.

Two others involved in the incident received more severe sentences.

Jonathan C. Jackson, 29, of the unit block of West Walnut Street, Pottstown, previously was sentenced to 10 to 20 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to felony charges of robbery and conspiracy to engage in robbery. Prosecutors alleged it was Jackson who stabbed a borough man four times during the strong-arm robbery attempt.

By pleading guilty to robbery, Jackson admitted that in the course of committing a theft he inflicted serious bodily injury to the victim.

Court records indicate Jackson had a previous aggravated assault conviction and the latest conviction represented a socalled “second strike” under state law. The 10-to-20-year prison term was a mandatory sentence under the “second strike” law.

Another woman, Jaida Elizabeth Dudley, 19, of the 400 block of Jefferson Street, Pottstown, previously was sentenced to 4 to 8 years in prison after she pleaded guilty to robbery-and conspiracy-related charges as part of a plea agreement.

The investigation began about 1:10 a.m. Jan. 20, 2019, when borough police were dispatched to the 400 block of East High Street for a report of a stabbing. Arriving officers found a male victim who sustained four stab or laceration wounds to his back and side, according to the criminal complaint filed by Pottstown Detective Heather Long.

The stabbing incident followed an earlier confrontation between the victim and Jackson during which Jackson punched the victim and demanded money from the victim, according to prosecutors. Jackson and the two women, Dudley and Hernandez, then followed the victim and assaulted the victim in the vestibule of an East High Street apartment, prosecutors alleged.

“All three of them were beating on him, kicking and punching him. (The victim) fell to the ground and ultimately the defendant (Jackson) took out a grey folding knife and stabbed (the victim) in the back four times,” Correia said at the time of Jackson’s hearing.