Jurors convicted Brianna Bloyer after prosecutors presented evidence of repeated injuries, online searches about bruises and a delay in seeking emergency help.

UNIONTOWN, Pa. — A Pennsylvania woman convicted of third-degree murder in the death of her boyfriend’s 2-year-old son has been sentenced to 20 to 40 years in prison, closing the main criminal case against a caregiver whose phone searches and statements to police became central evidence at trial.

Brianna Bloyer, 32, received the maximum sentence allowed for the offense from Fayette County Judge Joseph George Jr. after a jury found her guilty in August of killing Bentlee Myers. The toddler suffered a fatal head injury while in Bloyer’s care at a Springhill Township home in August 2024. Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction, but jurors instead returned a verdict on the lesser third-degree murder count after hearing several days of testimony about Bentlee’s injuries, Bloyer’s treatment of him and evidence recovered from her cellphone.

The case began as an emergency inside the Old Lake Lynn Road home on Aug. 16, 2024. A Head Start teacher had arrived for an appointment involving another child in the household when she encountered Bloyer and learned Bentlee was in serious distress. The teacher went to the boy, found him unresponsive and called 911. Emergency personnel later testified that Bentlee was not breathing and had bluish coloring. He was taken to WVU Medicine Ruby Memorial Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia, where doctors found a severe brain injury. Bentlee died Aug. 19, three days after emergency responders were summoned.

What happened before that 911 call became a major part of the prosecution’s case. Fayette County District Attorney Mike Aubele said Bloyer admitted during a police interview that she became angry with Bentlee, picked him up and tossed him, causing the child to strike his head hard. Prosecutors said she did not immediately summon an ambulance. Aubele told WTAE that the delay lasted at least 20 minutes and possibly as long as an hour before the Head Start teacher arrived and began trying to help the toddler. Investigators also said records from Bloyer’s phone showed that she did not place the emergency call herself.

The medical evidence extended beyond the fatal head injury. Authorities said doctors found bruises and cuts on Bentlee’s body in different stages of healing. Earlier court records described injuries to his head, arms, lips and legs, along with a brain bleed. At a preliminary hearing, testimony also addressed other injuries doctors considered inconsistent with an accidental fall. The evidence was important because prosecutors argued the fatal episode did not occur in isolation. Instead, they presented the jury with a broader pattern of injuries that they said showed Bentlee had been physically abused while Bloyer was caring for him.

Investigators found another part of that pattern on Bloyer’s phone. In the days before Bentlee was taken to the hospital, the device had been used for searches including “what better to make bruises fade overnight,” “homemade bruise cream” and a question about how long a carpet imprint on a face takes to disappear. On the morning Bentlee was found unresponsive, testimony at a preliminary hearing showed Bloyer searched for information about making someone regain consciousness shortly before the 911 call. Prosecutors presented the searches alongside medical testimony and Bloyer’s statements, leaving jurors to consider what the digital evidence showed about her knowledge of Bentlee’s condition.

Bloyer gave investigators accounts of the child’s condition that changed the focus of the inquiry. Early in the investigation, she said Bentlee had been staying with her for about two weeks and told police that he was stumbling before he collapsed. Later testimony established that she acknowledged becoming angry with him and throwing him from one area of the house toward the living room, where she heard a thud. A Head Start teacher testified that Bloyer had said the child struck his head on a coffee table. Prosecutors used the differences between those explanations, along with the physical and digital evidence, to challenge the suggestion that Bentlee’s fatal injury resulted from an ordinary household accident.

The investigation eventually expanded to Bentlee’s father, Brett Bissett. Authorities alleged that he knew Bloyer had been volatile with the toddler and was aware of earlier incidents involving the child, although prosecutors did not allege that he was present when the fatal injury occurred. Local reporting from the trial said Bissett later cooperated with prosecutors and pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter. His case reflected a separate part of the investigation: whether adults who knew about previous harm failed to protect Bentlee before the final injury. Bloyer, however, was the person prosecutors accused of inflicting the trauma that caused the boy’s death.

The prosecution originally pursued a more serious theory. Bloyer had been charged with homicide, and prosecutors went into trial seeking a first-degree murder conviction. Earlier in 2026, however, Aubele withdrew the possibility of the death penalty, saying the case would proceed as a regular homicide prosecution. At trial, jurors were permitted to consider lesser forms of criminal homicide. After deliberating for about three hours, they found Bloyer guilty of third-degree murder. Aubele said afterward that prosecutors had hoped to establish first-degree murder but were satisfied the jury had returned a murder conviction. The defense, meanwhile, said the verdict showed jurors had rejected the prosecution’s claim of premeditation.

Defense attorney Gregory Kunkel said after the verdict that the defense was grateful jurors did not find Bloyer guilty of first-degree murder and would review legal objections raised during the proceedings. Those issues included challenges involving evidence and matters related to jurors and spectators in the courtroom, according to local reporting. The third-degree murder verdict still exposed Bloyer to decades in prison. When she returned for sentencing on Aug. 27, George imposed a term of 20 to 40 years, the maximum sentence prosecutors said was available for the conviction.

The sentence shifted the case from a pending punishment question to a completed trial judgment. Aubele described the prosecution as difficult and emotional for investigators, emergency personnel, medical workers, witnesses, family members and jurors. He credited those participants after sentencing and said the outcome provided accountability for Bentlee’s death. The record presented at trial showed that several people ultimately became involved in trying to save the toddler and determine what had happened, but the emergency response began only after another adult entered the home and recognized the seriousness of his condition.

Bentlee’s death followed a sequence that investigators reconstructed through witness testimony, hospital findings, police interviews and cellphone records. The online searches received unusual attention because they appeared before the fatal emergency and concerned bruising, facial marks and loss of consciousness. Prosecutors did not present those searches in isolation. They paired them with evidence that Bentlee had older injuries, with testimony about Bloyer becoming angry with him and with the absence of a 911 call from her phone. The jury’s third-degree murder verdict established Bloyer’s criminal responsibility for his death even though jurors declined to find the premeditation required for the more serious first-degree murder charge.

With the 20-to-40-year prison term now imposed, Bloyer has been sentenced on the murder conviction arising from Bentlee’s August 2024 death. The defense had previously indicated it would review potential appellate issues following the verdict and sentencing. Any challenge would proceed through the courts; the trial judgment and sentence remain the controlling outcome unless altered in later proceedings.

Author note: Last updated September 21, 2026.