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After about a year of waiting for lab results, police charged a Pittsburgh man this week with drug delivery resulting in death in connection with the fatal overdose of a Lower Burrell woman.
Otis L. Henley, 44, was in the Westmoreland County Prison on charges related to the death of Candace Steck on May 4, 2020, including conspiracy to manufacture, deliver or possess drugs and escape.
Henley’s preliminary hearing on the latest charge is set for May 18 before District Judge Cheryl Peck-Yakopec in Allegheny Township. He is jailed in lieu of $50,000 bond. His trial on the initial drug charges is set to begin June 21.
Courtesy of Westmoreland County Prison
Jason A. Lewis of Boston.
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A 48-year-old man being held in the Westmoreland County Prison without bond in connection with a fatal overdose of a North Huntingdon woman was charged with additional drug-related complaints stemming from his arrest in New Stanton,according to court documents.
Jason A. Lewis, 48, of Boston, was arrested May 3 by North Huntingdon police and county detectives for selling a fatal dose of heroin-fentanyl in connection with the death of Iona J. Runkle, 46, who was discovered dead in her mobile home Jan. 12. Police allege that Runkle and her brother, Forest G. Piper Jr., 49, of West Newton purchased 10 stamp bags of contraband from Lewis in the parking lot of a Sheetz in North Huntingdon prior to her death.
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A Westmoreland County Prison inmate awaiting multiple hearings for illegal possession of a firearm, theft and drug-related charges is accused of trying to escape from custody.
County Detective James Williams charged Brandon Zepeda, 27, of Greensburg with escape after he allegedly attempted to run out of the emergency room at Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital, where prison guards took him April 27 for treatment of an undisclosed ailment.
Two guards accompanied Zepeda to the Greensburg hospital about 5 p.m. that day when he asked to use the restroom, according to court documents. His shackles had been removed during the treatment, Williams reported.
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A former New Kensington man acquitted last month in an Arnold shooting was sentenced Thursday to jail and probation terms for spitting on a fellow inmate and two guards in 2018.
Nicholas James Haynes, 24, was sentenced to up to 23 months in the Westmoreland County Prison but given credit for time spent in the jail on the charges since August 2018. He was ordered to serve a consecutive term of three years’ probation.
He pleaded guilty Thursday to a single count of aggravated harassment by a prisoner.
Federal judge says shotgun was seized without probable cause in Pa. man’s weapons case
Updated 10:13 PM;
WILLIAMSPORT – An unregistered sawed-off shotgun found in a Potter County cabin in 2019 cannot be used as evidence because a judge has ruled probable cause was lacking to issue a search warrant.
That weapon is the basis of three firearms charges in U.S. Middle District Court against the cabin owner, Thomas G. Stanko, 50, of Unity. Judge Matthew W. Brann on Tuesday ruled that nothing in the search warrant affidavit can be reasonably construed as implying the existence of firearms in the cabin.
The judge in his opinion provided this background on the case: