Penn woman sentenced to state prison in baseball bat assault
A Penn woman was sentenced Monday to one to two years in a state prison for beating a woman with a baseball bat at a Jeannette housing complex.
Heather L. Kunkle, 32, was ordered to serve a year of probation after the prison term.
She pleaded guilty Monday to charges of flight to avoid apprehension, possession of drug paraphernalia and defiant trespass. Prosecutors dismissed two counts of aggravated assault.
Kunkle pleaded no contest to four other misdemeanors filed against her in the Oct. 22 incident at Jeannette Manor on South Fourth Street.
Police said a woman reported Kunkle hit her on the head and shoulder with a metal baseball bat and then began beating on her car. Kunkle fled into the apartment building as she heard police arriving, according to investigators. The victim told police she didn’t know Kunkle.
Authorities found Kunkle hiding under a bed in a second-floor apartment. They confiscated from her a metal pipe used for smoking crack cocaine. She had been banned from the property because of prior incidents there. She was ordered to pay $1,000 in restitution.
She was credited with time served in the Westmoreland County Prison since her arrest.
Renatta Signorini is a TribLive reporter covering breaking news, crime, courts and Jeannette. She has been working at the Trib since 2005. She can be reached at rsignorini@triblive.com.
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