Judge Tom Bianco will conduct a hearing today to consider motions in the Marlena Jones kidnapping and attempted homicide case.

Jones is a 35-year-old Allegheny County woman charged with attempted homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault, unlawful restraint involving serious bodily injury, and related offenses in a July 2011 drug deal gone bad that ended up in Indiana County in the woods along Route 286 in Young Township.

Working with a man who remains unidentified and on the loose, Jones allegedly set up a deal with 19-year-old Thomas PierceIIIof Farrell to buy cocaine from a man Pierce knew, but the deal went sour the cocaine turned out to be fake.  Investigators say the two suspects stripped Pierce to his underwear and bound him with duct tape, then they drove him to Indiana County where Jones allegedly tried to shoot him, but her gun malfunctioned, so they doused him with lighter fluid and lit him on fire.  Pierce rolled on the ground to put out the flames and escaped, flagging down a motorist.  He was treated for burns at the Indiana Regional Medical Center. 

Jones is in the Indiana County Jail with bond set at $500,000.  Today’s hearing is at 8:30 AM.