Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Man Found Not Guilty for Drug Delivery that Resulted in Death

A man who was on trial for selling drugs to a woman who later died was found not guilty on Tuesday.

Kyle Merenda, 23, of Barnesville was on trial at the Schuylkill County Courthouse for charges of possession with intent to deliver, criminal use of a communications facility, possession of a controlled substance, and drug delivery resulting in death.

The charges were in relation to an April 2016 incident.

On April 2nd 2016, Alexandria Sienkiewicz, 23, of Tamaqua was found deceased in her bedroom. The Schuylkill County Coroner's office listed the cause of death as Acute Fentanyl Toxicity. The manner of death was listed as Homicide.

The investigation revealed Kyle Merenda, 22 of Barnesville, Jonathan Seekins, 33, of Coaldale and Melanie Kropp, 24, of Mahanoy City were all involved in the drug transaction that led to the death of Sienkiewicz.

On 03/06/17, an arrest warrant was issued for Merenda and on Monday March 20, 2017, Merenda was taken into custody in Tresckow, Carbon County by the Pennsylvania State Police at Hazleton but later released on bail.

Both Seekins and Kropp are still waiting to go on trial.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Schuylkill County jury deliberated for about 5 hours into the evening and just before 7:00pm, announced their ruling with Merenda being found "Not Guilty" on all 4 counts.