HOLLIDAYSBURG — A former Tyrone resident who had entered guilty pleas to almost 80 counts of child pornography had his sentencing rescheduled for Sept. 20

after President Judge Wade A. Kagarise learned that he had allegedly been promised a sentence of probation.

Andrew Holpit, 27, was taken into custody in April 2022 on 40 felony and 39 misdemeanor charges related to child pornography, court documents state. About half of those charges were brought after Snapchat contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and advised that child pornography was uploaded and shared on July 12, 2021.

Holpit had been free on $150,000 unsecured bail, a condition of which was he could not access the internet, from the time he was arrested in April 2022 until Feb. 15, 2024, when his bail was revoked. Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan had ordered Holpit to remain incarcerated after concluding that Holpit was notified of the bail condition and violated it.

Court documents indicate that Holpit was living in Blair County in December, when staff with a local mental health agency learned that he had arranged for internet access. When questioned, they said Holpit responded: “Not having internet is not humane.”

Holpit entered the guilty pleas in Blair County court in August 2023, when then-President Judge Elizabeth A. Doyle was presiding. At that time, Holpit’s sentencing was pending the completion of court-ordered mental health evaluations.

Kagarise granted the request for a continuance made by Holpit’s court-appointed defense attorney Kristen Anastasi so that he would have time to go over documents from two mental health facilities.

Anastasi also told Kagarise that she had previously spoken about the plea with Holpit and that Holpit thought he would be getting probation as his sentence.

While Assistant District Attorney Salua Kamerow was the prosecutor present during Holpit’s plea hearing, First District Attorney Nichole Smith was the prosecutor present for Tuesday’s proceedings. Smith said that Doyle had allegedly told the defense and prosecution during a sidebar that she was “willing to give probation” in the case.

“I wasn’t the ADA present so it’s hearsay to me,” Smith explained following the proceedings.

Kagarise asked Holpit if he had taken the guilty pleas because he had been under the assumption he would be receiving probation, to which Holpit said yes. Kagarise then told the court that because a “previous judge said they were willing to give probation” and he was “obviously a different judge,” he would give Holpit the chance to withdraw his guilty pleas and start the process over.

Holpit stated multiple times that he did not wish to withdraw his plea and wanted to go ahead with the sentencing rescheduled for September. Smith had no objection to this.

Despite Doyle’s alleged remarks, Smith said that the DA’s Office had always sought a state sentence for Holpit.

“The commonwealth will still be seeking a substantial state sentence,” Smith said.

Following the hearing, Smith said that, if Doyle had sentenced Holpit to probation, they would have appealed her decision.

“The commonwealth never said they would be willing to do that,” Smith said.

Instead, they would be seeking a state prison sentence of at least 10 to 20 years because each count against Holpit was for each pornographic image or video found.

“Those depicted very, very young children and depicted sexual contact,” Smith said.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor is at 814-946-7458.