A judge in New York State ruled on Friday the second-degree murder charges against a Silver Creek mother can move forward to a grand jury following a two-day preliminary hearing.

Ashley Bertino, 36, is charged in the death of her daughter, 12-year-old Mya Smith in April, who died as a result of neglect from untreated diabetic ketoacidosis., according to the officials. The Erie County Medical Examiners Office classified the cause of death as a homicide. The coroner testified on Friday that the cause of death is labeled as “medical neglect.

After several months of investigation by the Chautauqua County District Attorneys Office, Bertino was charged and arrested on Monday. During her two-day preliminary hearing on Thursday and Friday, the court heard from eight witnesses, including medical experts and school officials.

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“Our job is to make sure that justice gets done here, and that’s what we are striving to do. We are the voice for Mya at this point because she’s no longer here to tell her story,” First Assistant DA Jeffrey DiPalma said on Friday DiPalma argued to the court that Bertino’s reckless actions directly led to her daughter’s death, local ABC affiliate WKBW reported.

A neighbor of Bertino, Jill Meyer, testified during the hearing giving insight into the family’s home the day Mya died. Meyer’s son is friends with Mya’s brother and Meyer testified that he told her that he [Mya’s brother] had been taking care of Mya all day long. He tried sprinkling water in his sisters eyes and asked his mother to call 911 but she refused, saying that Mya was being dramatic.’ Meyer added that her son had told her that Mya’s brother had “crying and pacing” all day long.

Colleen Smith, a bus driver with the Silver Creek Central School District who’d known Mya for several years, visibly teared up during her testimony saying that Mya always sat behind the drivers seat on the bus and referred to Smith as her “bestie,” Law and Crime reported.

Smith added during her testimony that Mya and her sibling often came to school looking “unkempt” and struggled with odor,” the Post-Journal reported. A school nurse also testified that she had known Mya since kindergarten and that she frequently visited the nurse’s office due to ill-fitting clothes, WKBW reported. Investigators with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office said they were called to the hospital the night of Mya’s death and said when interviewed Bertino seemed “a little bit upset” with “some tears in her eyes.”

Mya should have been showing symptoms of diabetes for weeks or months and that any medical professional should have been able to identify her as a diabetic,” Chautauqua County Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Michael Faulk testified.

Judge Christopher Penfold, a 24-year veteran of the bench said on Friday that this was ” by far the most serious [case] he has ever presided over.

The case will now move to a grand jury where prosecutors will seek to formally indict Bartino on second-degree murder charges.

“This should not happen. Mya Smith should be alive,” Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt told WKBW. “It’s shocking to me that we you know, here we are in 2024 and you have an entire communitywho’d you hear from? You heard from neighbors, the school nurse, the teachers. You had the school resource officer. You had the entire community trying to provide resources to this mother in order to help with the care of her own children.”

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