MURDER CHARGE DOESN'T CARRY
Coffmans won't face most serious charges against them

The husband and wife who were jailed Feb. 26 for delivering drugs to a woman who later died, will not face the most serious charges filed against them.

Hearings for Shawna and Jesse Coffman, both of 47 First Fork Road, Sinnemahoning were held separately in front of Cameron County District Judge Alvin Brown Thursday.

Brown ruled that the Commonwealth did not provide enough evidence to bind over a second degree murder charge against Shawna Coffman. The other charges against her, theft, drug delivery resulting in death and possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, were all bound over to court.

A request by her attorney, Donna Albright, to reduce bail was denied by Judge Brown who told the court that bail sometimes serves as "protection from (one)self." He also said that the defendant needs to understand that liberally providing drugs to others is not only illegal, it's dangerous.

"Somewhere along the way (you) have to realize that drugs are dangerous, not only to yourself, but to other people," Judge Brown said.

Shawna Coffman will remain in Tioga County Jail on $100,000 cash bail.

Her husband, meanwhile, is free on $500 bail after the Commonwealth withdrew the most serious charge against him, criminal conspiracy to commit drug delivery resulting in death, a felony. Jesse Coffman and his lawyer Jared Smith waived the other charges against him, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, both misdemeanors.

Charges against the couple stem from a Dec. 31 incident in which the Coffmans brought drugs to a party at the home of Prescilla Himes and Melissa Marshall, who shared an apartment together at 19 West Second St. in Emporium.

Marshall, 39, died the following morning. A pathologist from the medical examiner's office in Erie believes the