Nicole Cash, a 26-year-old White/Caucasian female who also went by Nikki, died in the early morning hours of October 13, 2019, after a shooting inside a home on Sunset Drive in West Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania. She had been living in McSherrystown, Adams County, after moving from the Hampstead, Maryland, area, and she was the mother of a 9-month-old son. What began, according to court documents, as a night involving drinking and an argument with her boyfriend ended with Cash shot in the head while she was holding her baby.
Police said the shooting happened around 1 a.m. in the basement area of the home where Joshua Wertz, then 30, was staying. Wertz's father, Lewis Wertz, called 911 after his son came upstairs and said he had shot Cash. Investigators said Joshua Wertz told dispatchers and police that he had been holding an AR-15 rifle during an argument, and that Cash tried to grab the gun before it fired. Court documents described Wertz as saying the rifle “went off” and struck her. Officers found Cash dead from an apparent gunshot wound to the head, and the infant she had been holding had blood and biological material on his body and clothing.
Wertz was taken into custody at the scene and charged with criminal homicide in Cash's death. He was held in York County Prison without bail. Police said several guns were found in the basement, including the AR-15 rifle described in the charging documents. Wertz initially maintained that the shooting was accidental, but statements attributed to him in the complaint painted a chaotic scene: he reportedly told his father that he had shot her in the face and also said he expected to spend the rest of his life in jail.
Cash's family later spoke publicly about her death as a domestic violence tragedy. Her mother said she had warned Cash to leave Wertz and believed the relationship had been dangerous before the shooting. Family members described Cash as a devoted mother whose son was the center of her life. Her mother also questioned Wertz's version of events, saying she did not believe Cash could have meaningfully grabbed at the rifle while holding the baby and suggesting Cash may have been trying to protect her child.
The criminal case ultimately ended without a trial. In April 2022, Joshua Wertz pleaded no contest to third-degree murder for killing Nicole Cash. Under the plea, the first-degree murder charge was dropped, avoiding the mandatory life-without-parole sentence that would have applied to a first-degree murder conviction. Wertz was sentenced to 18 to 40 years in state prison.
