A Connellsville woman who left her 8-year-old grandchild holding a bag of stolen items from an area Wal-Mart was sentenced on Thursday to three to 23 months in jail.
Credited with time already served, Elaine Weimer was immediately placed on parole after a sentencing hearing before Fayette County Judge Conrad B. Capuzzi.
Weimer, 51, faced a maximum of six years behind bars on charges of retail theft, endangering the welfare of a child and corruption of minors. she previously entered a guilty plea to all three charges.
A plea bargain deal struck between her attorney and the district attorney’s office resulted in the dismissal of the corruption and endangerment charges.
Capuzzi said during the hearing that Weimer would be “subjected to increased supervision” and mental health treatment.
Weimer spent 92 days in the Fayette County Prison after she was arrested shortly after the June 23 incident in the Wal-Mart in South Union.
Authorities said Weimer made her granddaughter carry stolen items worth $200. when Weimer was stopped by store security, she denied knowing the girl, police said.
Weimer fled the store, leaving her granddaughter behind. The granddaughter identified Weimer to police.
“You are in need of mental and correctional treatment,” Capuzzi told Weimer. Capuzzi said the mental health services Weimer will be required to undergo could best be rendered outside of prison.
Weimer was ordered to pay nearly $200 in restitution to Wal-Mart and $470 in fines and court costs to the county.
The store bag the grandchild was carrying contained a variety of items, including a ball cap, swimming trunks, T-shirts, a hair brush, teeth whitening strips, bottles of Ensure and a head wrap.
Weimer has a history of prior convictions for retail theft, burglary, aggravated assault and resisting arrest, court records show.
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Grandmother who left child with stolen items put on parole
