CLEARFIELD – The four-day trial got under way Monday for an out-of-state man arrested in connection with a drug pipeline from Ohio to Clearfield County.
Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the “complete shutdown” of this drug pipeline and the subsequent criminal charges during a press conference on Jan. 8, 2019.
James Deshaun Thomas, 52, of Akron, Ohio is now standing trial on 15 felony drug-related offenses, which include 11 counts of delivery of a controlled substance.
The estimated street value of all the crystal methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs distributed by this pipeline is $1.5 million, according to a previously-published report.
That included 10,000 grams of crystal meth, which is the equivalent of 50 to 100 doses being used every week, according to the report.
The case is being prosecuted by Deputy Attorney General David Gorman and Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Madera. Thomas is represented by attorney Joe Ryan of Reynoldsville.
In his opening statements, Gorman said Sondra L. McQuillen of Houtzdale and her fiancé, Donald Mullens, were regularly bringing meth to Clearfield County that was supplied by Thomas.
After Mullens died from a multi-drug overdose on May 22, 2018, he said McQuillen continued to make trips to Ohio for drugs that she sold to others.
On July 26, 2018, Gorman said law enforcement officers followed McQuillen and another individual to Akron where she met with Thomas.
A search warrant was executed at Thomas’ residence later the same day, he said, and turned up four ounces of meth, almost 200 grams of cocaine and marijuana.
At his barber shop, Gorman said they found two pounds of meth, over four ounces of cocaine and almost three pounds of marijuana.
Ryan said the defense didn’t dispute many of the facts, or that Thomas had a barber shop from which he sold drugs on the side. “We don’t dispute that.”
But he kept his opening short, pointing out that the burden of proof rests on the commonwealth, and that at the conclusion of the case, he’d ask jurors to return a verdict of not guilty.
The investigation began when authorities established a confidential informant who was able to purchase drugs from a local couple, Jason and Joyce Merritts, according to an OAG agent.
From September of 2017 through July of 2018, authorities arranged a total of 18 controlled purchases of meth from the Merritts, the agent testified.
The agent said controlled buys were initially for smaller amounts of one or two grams, but the final buy was for one-half of an ounce of meth on July 6, 2018.
Further investigation revealed that McQuillen had been supplying the couple with drugs to sell, and that McQuillen’s source was Thomas.
The agent said Mullens and or McQuillen traveled to the Akron, Ohio area on approximately 26 occasions in 2018. McQuillen was followed on July 2, July 11 and July 26.
McQuillen testified that beginning in September of 2017, she and or Mullens made three or four monthly drug runs to Akron, where Mullens got drugs from Thomas.
She said Mullens mainly got meth for resale to his people but sometimes got other drugs like cocaine and marijuana. He also gave McQuillen meth for personal use and to resell.
Initially, she said Mullens got small amounts of meth like four or five ounces, but amounts increased to as much as a pound after his release from the halfway house in Sharon in January of 2018.
She said after Mullens died in May that year, she continued to make regular trips and Thomas told her that he’d give her the same price as he had Mullens.
She said Mullens got a pound of meth from Thomas for $10,000, but that she cut back to four or five ounces per trip up until she got stopped by law enforcement on her way back to Clearfield County.
On July 26, 2018, McQuillen said her traffic stop turned up around four ounces of meth, an eight-ball of cocaine, marijuana and pills. The pills weren’t from Thomas, she said, but from her personal supply.
In September of 2018, she said agents served a search warrant of her Houtzdale residence and it turned up an additional amount of meth that Ken Quade had found in the garage a week earlier.
She said it had been hidden there, and was from Thomas because it was packaged the same. She said it must have been missed when her home was searched following her traffic stop.
McQuillen said though she – at times – had no supply of meth to sell to others, Thomas always had supplies of meth, cocaine and marijuana whenever she needed them.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday before Judge Paul Cherry in Courtroom No. 1 at the Clearfield County Courthouse, and is scheduled to run through Thursday.