Crime DME

A Butler woman is charged with tampering with evidence after she removed a dead man’s cellphone from a crime scene in Westmoreland County.

Cheryl Anne Warner, 35, of Jefferson Street, was charged Thursday, March 26, by Vandergrift police with two misdemeanor counts of tampering with evidence following a Jan. 5 incident.

Police said they were dispatched to a residence after Warner and another man entered the apartment and found a man’s body. Police said the two left the home in a panicked state and called 911.

While investigating the apartment, police found a bag containing two containers with a white substance, a rolled-up $1 bill and a Suboxone pill. They did not locate the man’s wallet or phone.

The next day, police said Warner came to the station and turned over a cellphone. Warner said she took the cellphone and three or four Suboxone strips that were beside the man’s body before leaving the apartment, according to police. She told police she took the items fearing the man she was with was involved in the death, police said.

Warner told police she took the phone, broke the sim card and threw it in a dumpster behind a church. She also said she threw the Suboxone strips out the window while driving away, police said.

Warner’s preliminary hearing is scheduled for 11 a.m. May 19 before District Judge Cheryl Peck-Yakopec.