Man sentenced for role in concealing body of overdose victim
A Uniontown man was sentenced to six to 12 months in prison last week for tampering with physical evidence in connection with the disposal of a body of a Fayette county woman who died of an overdose in 2022.
Joseph Lockett, 40, was released after the sentencing, having spent 1,136 days in custody.
He was arrested in October 2022, shortly after state police found the body of Keisha Hottinger, 26, in a wooded area near Old Braddock Road in North Union Township.
Hottinger’s mother had declared her missing two weeks earlier.
Lockett told police at the time he and Austin Saletrik had been with Hottinger when they observed her in an unconscious state along Hopwood Coolspring Road. He and Saletrik then took her to a location near Lemont Furnace to obtain Narcan.
When they were unable to revive Hottinger, Saletrik disposed of her body.
Saletrik, 28, of Uniontown, was sentenced to two years in prison in 2025 for hindering apprehension or prosecution.
Lockett was convicted of the misdemeanor tampering charge in a trial in Fayette County Court of Common Pleas in December. He was acquitted on a felony charge of hindering apprehension or prosecution as well as a misdemeanor charge of abuse of a corpse.