From staff reports
A Cooperstown woman was sentenced Friday to up to 15 years in prison on a third degree murder charge in connection with the fentanyl overdose death of her two-year-old son last year.
Venango County President Judge Marie T. Veon sentenced Stevie Goreczny, 21, to serve six to 15 years in state prison. Goreczny will receive credit for 255 days she has already spent in jail.
Goreczny pleaded guilty in March to the third degree murder charge. Felony charges of endangering the welfare of children and involuntary manslaughter were dropped in exchange for her guilty plea.
Kyle Peasley, an assistant Venango County district attorney, asked Stevie Goreczny during last month’s plea hearing if she had received fentanyl the morning of her son’s death from a man known to be a drug user and dealer, and she replied “yes” with tears in her voice when asked to confirm the man’s name.
A criminal complaint related to the case and filed in September by Franklin state police noted the man was with Stevie Goreczny the morning of her son’s death.
The complaint said Stevie Goreczny had been dating the man and had obtained drugs from several people but mostly from that man.
She added that the boy’s father was in jail and she had been living with Stanley Goreczny since October 2021, according to the complaint.
Stevie Goreczny said she woke up at about 5 a.m. on July 8 and checked on her son. She said she found him in a seated position on the couch not breathing but still warm, the complaint said.
She screamed, which woke her father up, and they took the boy to the hospital where he was pronounced dead, the complaint said.
State police received a toxicology report Aug. 9 that determined the boy died of a fentanyl overdose, according to the complaint.
Stanley Goreczny was also charged in the case, and he pleaded guilty in February to a felony count of endangering the welfare of children.
He was sentenced earlier this month by Veon to serve one to four years in state prison. He received credit for the 189 days he had already served in the Venango County jail.
