Waide Nolf, who is serving life in prison for drowning a Bradford woman and her infant in 2010, is asking for a new trial, alleging DNA evidence he did not have then will prove his innocence now.
Nolf, 52, formerly of Bradford, is serving his sentence at State Correctional Institution at Albion after his no-contest plea to murder and involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of Tonya Haight and her three-week-old daughter on March 19, 2010, in the Pleasant Street home they shared with five others.
A hearing on Nolf’s Post Conviction Relief Act (PCRA) petition had been set for last week in McKean County Court, but was rescheduled for 1 p.m. July 12. He is now represented by court-appointed attorney Joseph Ryan of Reynoldsville.
Nolf’s petition, handwritten and filed on his own behalf prior to his attorney’s appointment, doesn’t spell out arguments behind the points he raised, but states areas where he believes errors occurred.
The petition stated that his PCRA was filed more than 13 years after his sentence because he was denied DNA test results. The DNA evidence “proves my innocence,” his petition stated, adding that the results came back negative for his DNA, but positive for that of another person who lived in the home.
The petition claimed that his defense counsel, Michael Marshall of DuBois, was ineffective. Among other claims were that police coerced him to confess and that audio and video recordings made by police were not introduced in court. The petition did not state when the recordings were made or how they might have benefitted Nolf in his defense.
He is asking for release from custody and a new trial.
According to then District Attorney Ray Learn, on March 19, 2010, between the hours of 3 and 9 a.m., Nolf was in the bathroom at the residence when Haight walked in on him, which made him angry. He confronted her in the living room of the residence before Haight went into the bathroom while holding the infant. Nolf then entered the bathroom and pushed Haight into the bathtub, forcing her face to the bottom of the tub, turning on the water and holding her there while the tub filled, drowning both her and the infant.
Nolf then checked to make sure Haight’s husband was still sleeping and went back to bed. Later in the morning, he woke up her husband, saying he found Haight and the infant dead in the tub. Another resident of the home called 911 and EMS was dispatched.
Nolf provided police with three separate interviews. In the third interview, he admitted that he had initially lied to the police and that he had in fact killed Haight but that he did not intend to kill the infant, and did not realize that Haight was still holding her until he saw the baby floating, Learn stated at the time of the sentencing for Nolf.
Nolf was sentenced Sept. 10, 2010, to a mandatory term of life in prison without parole in the killing of Haight and 18 months to 36 months of additional time for killing the infant, consecutive to the life sentence.
