Coroner’s jury to investigate pregnant woman’s death

BY SANDRA K. REABUCK
The Tribune-Democrat

EBENSBURG May 08, 2008 11:29 pm

— Cambria County Coroner Dennis Kwiatkowski will convene an inquest June 5 into the death of a pregnant Johnstown woman and her unborn child in early February.
Nicole Marie Grove was found dead Feb. 7 by her husband, James, in the living room of their house in the city’s Woodvale section, the coroner said.
She was pronounced dead at 2:50 p.m., he said.
The cause of death was listed as a drug overdose, but Kwiatkowski declined to reveal what type of drug was involved.
Grove, 21, was nearly five months pregnant. The gestation age of her unborn baby was listed at 18 weeks, Kwiatkowski said.
On Thursday, the coroner, with the assistance of District Attorney Patrick Kiniry, selected six jurors, plus one alternate, for the inquest.
The inquest is expected to last a day and will be held in the fifth-floor courtroom at the county-owned Central Park Complex in downtown Johnstown.
Kwiatkowski told the jurors that they will be looking into how Grove obtained the drugs and who may have supplied them.
Kiniry also said that the jurors would make recommendations on whether any charges should be filed in the death of the mother and unborn baby.
The district attorney’s office, however, is not bound by any recommendation from the jury, which functions as a “fact-finder,” he said.
In addition to possible criminal responsibility for the woman’s death, a person under state law could be charged with a limited number of crimes against an unborn child: Criminal homicide; murder of the first, second or three degree; voluntary manslaughter; or aggravated assault.