Schuylkill County President Judge William E. Baldwin has overturned the two most serious convictions against a Mahanoy City woman who rolled from the couch onto a 14-month old girl she was caring for, smothering her to death.

Baldwin on Tuesday reversed the murder of the third degree and aggravated assault convictions for Pietrina C. Hoffman, 54.

She is scheduled to be sentenced on the remaining charges of persons not to possess or use firearms, endangering the welfare of children and two counts of recklessly endangering another person, and prohibited offensive weapons at 9 a.m. Nov. 29.

Hoffman was convicted on June 27 and sentenced by Baldwin on Aug. 2 to 16 to 32 years in state prison.

According to court documents and testimony, Hoffman took a cocktail of muscle relaxants, morphine and a liquid sleep aid before falling asleep the night of Jan. 9, 2016, and rolling off the couch onto Nevaeh N. Doyle.

Hoffman told police she realized Nevaeh had stopped breathing at about 5 a.m. Jan. 10. But she made coffee, let the dogs out and then went back to sleep until about 2 p.m. Then called her husband, who was away, before calling 911.

Hoffman said those hours “seemed like minutes.”

“I thought it was 5:30 (a.m.). It was dark all day,” she said. “To me, it was just a couple of minutes.”

“I would never hurt those kids. They were my life,” Hoffman said.

Her defense lawyer, Kent D. Watkins said a forensic expert testified at Hoffman’s trial that Nevaeh’s death could have been accidental.

Further, he said, once she realized the child was dead, there was nothing she could have done, referring to the hours that elapsed between Hoffman’s realization that Nevaeh had stopped breathing and her call to 911.

At her sentencing hearing, Baldwin said that according to expert testimony at the trial, the baby could have survived had she gotten immediate medical help.

Hoffman’s failure to call 911 immediately took “away any chance she had of survival.”