Mar 11, 2026 By Mike Jones 3 min read

Fayette County’s prosecutor is taking the death penalty off the table for a Springhill Township woman accused of killing her toddler son nearly two years ago.

District Attorney Michael Aubele filed paperwork March 4 removing the aggravating factors against Brianna Bloyer in the Aug. 19, 2024 death of 2-year-old Bentlee Myers.

Bloyer, 32, was charged in November 2024 with homicide, and Aubele filed aggravating circumstances in the case, such as Bentlee’s age at the time of his death and accusations that she tortured her son. That filing last April allowed the prosecution to seek the death penalty against Bloyer if she was convicted of first-degree murder.

Aubele’s motion to strike was granted Monday by Fayette County Court of Common Pleas Judge Joseph George Jr. Aubele said Tuesday there were “several factors” in making the decision, mostly due to the costs associated with prosecuting death penalty cases.

“They’re expensive cases to prosecute,” Aubele said. “Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources here with attorneys.”

There are two active death penalty cases in the county, both of which involve the deaths of young children.

“With death penalty cases, they come with a lot of delays with prosecution,” Aubele said, noting that this case has been pending for nearly two years. “Looking at these cases and unfortunately considering financial considerations and personnel we have here … we felt it was best to move this case forward.”

There has been a moratorium on carrying out executions in Pennsylvania since then governor Tom Wolf put a freeze on signing death warrants in 2015, a practice that his successor Gov. Josh Shapiro has continued. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, only three convicted murderers have been put to death in Pennsylvania, with the last execution occurring in 1999.

Bloyer is represented by the Fayette County public defender’s office, and Chief Public Defender Nicholas Clark said he was happy about the decision. The office is continuing to file motions in the case, so it’s not known when Bloyer will stand trial.

“We’re very pleased with his decisions and agree it’s the right decision,” Clark said. “The case will move forward as a regular homicide. We’ll have to go forward from there.”

Bloyer is accused of abusing Bentlee over several weeks while the child’s father, Brett Bissett, was at work. Bissett, 26, is also facing homicide and other charges, although Aubele said he is not accused of killing the child, but being “complicit” in the alleged poor care the boy received.

A Head Start teacher who had come to the couple’s Old Lake Lynn Road home to work with a different child on Aug. 16, 2024, called 911 after Bloyer apparently panicked about the child’s condition, according to testimony at last year’s preliminary hearing. When first responders arrived, the boy was in bed not breathing and his face was blue.

The boy was taken to WVU Medicine Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, W.Va., where he was declared brain dead and died three days later. Bentlee had multiple injuries and a coroner’s report ruled the child’s cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head.

Aubele said despite not pursuing the death penalty against Bloyer, they are still hoping to secure a first-degree murder conviction and the automatic life sentence that would come with it.

“We’re always going to do what’s best for the county, what’s best for the victim and what’s best for everyone,” Aubele said. “It’s unfortunate we have to make decisions like that.”