CHICORA — Snapchat correspondence was used to counter the defense of a Clay Township teenager charged in connection with an armed robbery.

McHayla M. Hoffman, 18, is one of three people charged with setting up an ambush against a man Aug. 22 to exact revenge on him for unkind comments about a cousin of one of the defendants, a trooper testified Tuesday at Hoffman's preliminary hearing.

Supposed marijuana for sale was used to lure the man, 22, to a home in Clay Township last month, but Trooper Brian Pelko said there was no marijuana — only a beating and robbery.Pelko testified that Hoffman helped arrange that meeting using Snapchat, a mobile application through which users can text and exchange videos and photos. Snapchat correspondence often is short in nature, and Pelko testified that he had gathered Hoffman's Snapchat activity around the time of the attack. For her alleged part, Hoffman was charged with robbery and conspiracy, both felonies.But during Tuesday's hearing, Hoffman's lawyer, Joel Hills, noted that in all of the Snapchat correspondences and information collected by police, nothing proves that Hoffman arranged the robbery nor that she knowingly lured the victim to her house.Hoffman's co-defendants are Bradin A. Bender, 20, and Michael R. Edinger, 21, of Butler. They had preliminary hearings before Judge Lewis Stoughton, who ordered the two held for court on felony charges of robbery, conspiracy, theft and receiving stolen property.Stoughton made the same decision in Hoffman's case, despite arguments from Hills.

During interviews with police, Hoffman said she was in the home at the time of the attack, but said she was asleep in a separate room at the time. During Tuesday's hearing, Pelko said it was unlikely she was asleep because her Snapchat account was active during the same period with text correspondence.But Hills argued that Hoffman had no idea that Bender planned to attack the victim with an aluminum bat.Pelko also noted that after the victim left the house, Hoffman messaged another person on Snapchat asking them if they knew where to buy marijuana.“By all accounts, she wasn't involved in robbery,” Hills said. “It happened in her home, but that's it. She never made a statement that she agreed to commit robbery.”State police said they got a call for the suspected robbery around 10:10 p.m. at Hoffman's home on Queen Junction Road.The victim allegedly told troopers he had gone there that night to buy marijuana from Hoffman.But when he got to the home, police said, the victim recounted that he was met at the door by Bender and Edinger, who had a baseball bat.Edinger allegedly began assaulting him, according to court documents, and Bender “told him to stop running his mouth about his cousin.”The victim reported that Bender punched and kicked him “many times,” police said. He allegedly said he also was choked during the incident.The man allegedly told police that Bender removed his wallet, which had about $520, as well as car keys, a cellphone, cigarettes and two prescription bottles containing medication.The victim said he eventually was able to escape the house, documents said, but he claimed Bender and Edinger took his car, a 2009 Hyundai Sonata.Police said the vehicle was found crashed a short distance away.Police found the suspects at the house. The victim was taken to Butler Memorial Hospital with injures that police described as a contusion to his right eye and scrapes to his body.