Amanda Hughes

The trial scheduled to begin next week for a former Cranberry Township woman charged with homicide in the February 2023 shooting death of her boyfriend was continued Tuesday, Nov. 12, while a pool of prospective jurors was waiting for the jury selection process to begin.

Jury selection for the trial of Amanda Hughes, 28, who now lives in Pittsburgh, was scheduled to begin Tuesday, and the trial was scheduled to begin Monday. Common Pleas Judge Joseph Kubit rescheduled the trial until February at the conclusion of a lengthy hearing Tuesday.

Hughes is charged with criminal homicide in the death of Anthony D. Smith, who was 30. Hughes is accused of shooting Smith five times in her former home on Brandywine Drive. She told police Smith attacked her and was punching her in the face and head, but she managed to get her gun and shoot him.

She called 911, went to a neighbor’s home and directed police to the gun.

Police reported Hughes had bruising and swelling on the back of her right hand and a small cut and swelling under her left eye.

Assistant district attorney Laura Pitchford requested the continuance to give investigators more time to download text messages from Hughes’ cellphone. The messages were sent between Hughes and Smith’s grandmother, 68-year-old Sandra Jackson, following the shooting.

The competence of Jackson to testify was another subject of the hearing. Pitchford said seeing Hughes during a previous court proceeding caused Jackson to suffer a heart attack.

Sandra Wilson, who is Jackson’s granddaughter and caregiver, and has Jackson’s power of attorney, testified that Jackson’s memory is “in and out” and she is not always aware. She brought Jackson’s medical records for the attorneys to review.

Wilson said Jackson is not competent to testify, and she is worried that Jackson could have another heart attack if she sees Hughes.

“Once she sees Amanda, it’s over,” Wilson said.

Edward Horan, a detective with the Cranberry Township Police Department, said Jackson was going to verify the texts sent between her and Hughes.

He said he obtained search warrant for Hughes’ phone records, but didn’t execute the warrant after he discovered an error in the dates of the records he was seeking. Another warrant will be needed if the records can’t be obtained from the phone by using software, he said.

Horan said Hughes gave police a personal identification number to access the phone, but the number didn’t work. She then provided another number, but that did not work either, he said.

Kubit granted Pitchford’s motion to question Jackson about her memory and the text messages in camera, or in Kubit’s chamber.

After returning to the courtroom, Hughes’ attorney, Kenneth Haber, argued that Jackson is competent to testify, and he agreed to stipulate that the text messages were sent between Jackson and Hughes as long as he could cross-examine her during the trial. Haber said the prosecution has been in possession of Hughes’ phone since the shooting.

Pitchford said Jackson remembered one of the messages and is not competent to testify, and the continuance is needed for the prosecution to find another way to have the messages entered as evidence.

She said if another search warrant for the phone doesn’t produce results, she would seek a warrant to obtain the records from the phone service provider.

Haber said Jackson is a key witness, and her condition could deteriorate by the time a trial begins if the trial was delayed.

Kubit said it is “regrettable” that a key witness was not vetted before the day jury selection was scheduled to begin and the jury pool was assembled. He said he will instruct Jackson to testify in a deposition in case her condition deteriorates before the trial.

Hughes is free on $100,000 bail.