The Pennsylvania Superior Court this week dismissed an appeal by an Altoona woman because she failed to provide a complete record of her case to the reviewing panel.

The panel included Judges Deborah A. Kunselman, Megan Sullivan and Correale F. Stevens, who ruled that Brenna Jade Dimitroff, 29, waived her appeal rights because of the incomplete record she submitted for their inspection.

Her appeal before the panel involved a sentence she received last year on a 2023 charge of retail theft.

Initially, she pleaded guilty to the retail theft charge and was sentenced by Blair County Judge Timothy M. Sullivan to a term of two years’ probation.

However, state court records state that she got into further trouble while on probation and in July of last year, she entered pleas for hindering apprehension of a suspect wanted by city police and retail theft.

She admitted to violating terms of her probation, and she was at that point resentenced on the retail theft charge by Senior Judge Daniel J. Milliron to a state prison term of two to four years.

Dimitroff asked the judge to reconsider her state sentence, but was denied. She then sought an appeal with the state Superior Court.

She maintained in the appeal filed by the Blair County Public Defender’s Office that her new sentence on the charge of retail theft was well above the aggravated range recommended in the sentencing guidelines.

In an opinion written by Sullivan, the Superior Court went into detail as to why it rejected Dimitroff’s appeal.

The opinion stated, “An appellate court will not lightly disturb the trial court’s sentencing judgment because the judge is in the best position to review the defendant’s character, defiance or indifference, and the overall nature of the crime.

The Dimitroff appeal raised the question that the sentencing judge (Milliron) abused his discretion by imposing a sentence of two to four years, which allegedly was an upward departure of 19 months above the aggravated range suggested in the sentencing guidelines.

The appeal also contended the sentencing judge did not state his reasons for the substantial departure from the guidelines.

The Superior Court opinion summarized the appeal as a challenge to the discretionary aspects of the prison sentence imposed on her.

To challenge the sentence, the Dimitroff defense had to establish that the Blair judge either ignored or misapplied the law or was guided by prejudice, bias or ill will, to arrive at “a manifestly unreasonable decision.”

The Superior Court opinion indicated the Dimitroff appeal did not contain a copy of the resentencing guideline form used by Milliron in his sentencing and her appeal did not specifically reference those sentencing guidelines.

The appeals court opinion stated that the defense had “an obligation to ensure the record forwarded to this Court contained the documents necessary to allow for our complete and judicious assessment of her issues raised on appeal.”

The opinion concluded, “We are unable to determine the applicable resentencing recommendations because no document of record indicates Dimitroff’s prior record score or the standard range under the sentencing guidelines.

“We cannot, based on the limited information provided, confirm this assertion (that the prison sentence was excessive).”

Dimitroff was serving her sentence at the State Correctional Institution in Frackville, but as of Wednesday, she was in a halfway house (Conewago) in Pottsville.

On her new charges of hindering apprehension, Blair County Judge Timothy Sullivan sentenced her on July 11, 2025, to 48 days to 23 months, 15 days in prison.