East Bethlehem woman sentenced for role in home invasion that resulted in husband’s death
An East Bethlehem woman whose husband was shot and killed during an attempted robbery in West Pike Run Township was sentenced Wednesday for assisting in the botched home invasion and in a separate case in which she was accused of receiving benefits from the Social Security Administration for four children who weren’t in her care.
Bobbi West, 31, of Crawford Road, was sentenced to 11 to 30 months in jail on a charge of conspiracy to commit robbery to which she’d previously pleaded guilty. During a short appearance before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman, she also pleaded guilty to a charge of theft by deception. West was also sentenced to two years of probation.
Police said West dropped off her husband, Robert J. West, 42, and Andrew Graseck, now 20, of Carmichaels, Greene County, at a camper on McGirts Road Dec. 28, 2014.
Police said she planned to pick them up following the robbery.
Police said Nicholas Dziyak, 74, went outside when the would-be robbers cut off electrical power to his camper. After he was beaten with wooden axe handles and knocked to the ground, Dziyak fired several shots from a handgun, fatally wounding Robert West. Dziyak was not charged in the shooting.
State police filed charges against Bobbi West Jan. 22. She was arrested in Ohio and later extradited to Pennsylvania.
Washington County Detective Mark Schmelzlen filed a second criminal case against her in March following a referral from Social Security investigators.
A week before she was charged in the robbery, West applied for Social Security benefits for children she said were living with her. Authorities said the children lived elsewhere. West received a total of $37,800 in payments between February 2015 and February 2016. As part of her sentence, she was ordered to pay that amount in restitution to the federal agency.
Gilman sentenced Graseck – who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, robbery and conspiracy to commit robbery – in November to three to six years in state prison and four years’ probation.