CLEARFIELD – A New Providence man pleaded guilty Tuesday to bringing large quantities of methamphetamine into Clearfield County.
Trevor Lee Brubaker, 19, was sentenced by Judge Paul E. Cherry to serve 12 months to three years in state prison for possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and related charges.
The charges stem from an incident on Nov. 30 after police spoke with the occupants of a vehicle that included Brubaker in Clearfield Borough.
According to the affidavit of probable cause, two officers spotted a vehicle at 12:41 a.m., which accelerated west on Market Street. They lost track of it before finding it sitting near a business on Market Street. A male was standing near the vehicle.
Because there are no businesses open in that area at that time of night, the officers decided to speak with them.
One of the officers recognized Brubaker from another incident when Brubaker was charged with having brass knuckles.
Brubaker was sitting in the passenger’s seat and Julie Fogle was identified as the driver.
Fogle told police she and Brubaker were from the Lancaster area and were here visiting friends like Cory Irwin of Curwensville who was in the back seat.
Fogle said she did not know the man who was standing outside their car. The man told police he was talking to the driver in the car because he thought they were drunk and was asking if they needed him to drive.
As Brubaker and Fogle got out their identification, the officers saw they both had large amounts of cash in their wallets.
The fourth person in the vehicle was found to be Arlene Kupchella, who was wanted in Indiana, Pa.
Officers running Brubaker’s information discovered he had pending drug cases in Lancaster.
Because Brubaker had previously been known to carry a knife on his ankle, he was asked if he had a weapon. He admitted he had the knife and an officer was able to remove it from his lower leg.
This officer also found a bulge near his other ankle that was a clear pink baggie with methamphetamine in it. Brubaker was then taken into custody.
After Irwin was asked to step out of the vehicle and searched, police found he was carrying a container with a large number of small pills later identified as Xanax.
Fogle originally did not agree to have the vehicle searched, but after she was told a K9 unit was on its way, she allegedly admitted there was meth in the car.
During the search, the K9 officer alerted on a backpack found where Irwin was sitting in the car. In it the officers discovered, pipes, baggies with residue, butane torches and plastic straws.
Also found in the vehicle were scales, a black container with 30 grams of a substance thought to be meth and $2,400 in cash.
In his interview with police, Brubaker admitted to making five trips from the Lancaster area to Clearfield. He sold quarter grams of meth for $40, which he said was a high price because the meth was “so good”.
He described himself as a good dealer because he wasn’t addicted and his product got others hooked. He stated he used Fogle’s phone to arrange the drug sales.
Fogle told police Brubaker had been involved with the sale of meth across the state.
Earlier that evening, she said they went to Lawrence Park Village, where Brubaker and Irwin traded meth for Xanax pills that they were going to split.
Irwin is charged with manufacture/delivery/possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Fogle is charged with conspiracy, manufacture/delivery/possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, dealing in proceeds of unlawful activity, criminal use of communication facility and possession of a controlled substance.
