The Warren couple charged in connection with the August 2020 drowning of a 2-year-old in Hatch Run has been bound over as a result of a preliminary hearing.

The hearing was held Tuesday at the Warren County Courthouse before District Judge Laura Bauer on the charges against Nichol V. Barrett and Richard D. Barrett.

Both reside at 3435 Conewango Ave., according to court records. They also both face three charges – one count each of first-degree felony endangering the welfare of children and two counts of second-degree felony endangering the welfare of children.

The drowning, according to the affidavit of probable cause, occurred on Aug. 17 when Nichol Barrett reported “finding her daughter floating face down in Hatch Run Creek.”

Both defendants told police in an interview that there was only a “5-6 minute time frame” where they were “not physically seeing the children,” per the affidavit.

But two other children in the home were found by a neighbor 1/5th of a mile from the residence approximately 45 minutes before the drowning was reported, per the affidavit.

Pennsylvania State Police Trooper Jeffrey Osborne testified that a 911 call was received from a Schumann Rd. residence shortly after 2 p.m. on the date in question.

He said the caller found two children in the creek bed approximately 50 yards from the mouth of the creek where it joins the Conewango Creek in an “absolutely” dangerous location for children.

Osborne testified that the caller reported hearing children screaming.

A second 911 call from Nichol Barrett about 45 minutes after the first was the “focus” of the investigation shifted to the reported drowning.

Osborne said troopers responded to the Barrett residence and found Richard Barrett performing CPR on the child and Nichol Barrett screaming.

He testified the child was pronounced dead at Warren General Hospital and that an autopsy resulted in a determination that the cause of death was drowning.

Osborne said troopers did not interview the Barretts until Sept. 11.

“(We) gave them time to grieve over the death,” he said. They came to the Starbrick barracks and he interviewed Nichol Barrett while another trooper interviewed her husband.

Osborne said they “talked about her entire day that day” and reviewed “discrepancies” between the timeline she provided and a timeline affirmed by cellular phone records detailing calls the couple made.

He ultimately concluded that the children were unsupervised for over an hour.

He identified the safety risks the children were exposed to based on where they were found — briars, brush, the creek bed, the roadway.

“It’s all there,” he said, testifying that police had trouble traversing the creek bed between the residence and where the children were found.

He estimated that the straight distance the children covered was between .2 and .33 miles. District Attorney Rob Greene asked for an estimate in football fields.

“Eight to 10,” Osborne said. “A lot.”

Police charged the couple as if there was a course of conduct and Osborne highlighted a “substantial” number of “individual incidents” that had prompted Children and Youth Services to respond to the residence.

Nichol Barrett’s attorney, Erik Mikovch, raised issue with Osborne’s estimate of the distance the children covered.

“We don’t know what path they took,” Osborne said.

He indicated law enforcement did not see the child in the pool where she drowned but said that Richard Barrett took them to the location and Nichol Barrett’s cell phone was found there. The pool where the child drowned was 10 feet by 15 feet and a maximum depth of 30 inches. He added the area was “almost impossible” to hike.

Mikovch asked if Richard Barrett was the parent that permitted the children to go outside but Osborne responded that, regardless, Barrett was still a parent responsible in this situation.

District Attorney Rob Greene said the defendants “had a duty of care” and that the child died “as a result of this negligent care.”

Bauer said she believed the Commonwealth met its burden — a prima facie case — and said the charges would be bound over to the Court of Common Pleas.

“It’s our position this is a horrible tragedy,” Nichol Barrett’s attorney, Steve Sebald, told the Times Observer after the hearing.

He insisted that in the family’s dealings with Children and Youth there were no similar supervision issues.

He added that they will be waiving their next court date — formal arraignment — and believes he will be filing “aggressive” pre-trial motions in the case.