Butler man gets 6-year term
A Butler man was sentenced to more than six years in state prison in Butler County Court on Thursday, after being charged in three heroin distribution cases.
Bryan K. Doller, 36, was sentenced to 6½ to 13 years in a state correctional facility by President Judge Thomas Doerr. He was given 336 days time served credit and ordered to pay court costs.
Doller previously pleaded guilty to three counts of felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance — heroin and fentanyl — on Jan. 30.
His attorney, Tyler Deluco, argued that the three incidents, while happening in the same week, were all part of a “course of conduct,” where police used the same confidential informant to purchase the drugs from the same location with Doller, and asked that the charges all run concurrently as one offense.
He also said that Doller was selling heroin to support his own habit.
Doller said he accepts full responsibility.
“I wasn't trying to hurt nobody, I was just trying to support my addiction,” he said.
District Attorney Richard Goldinger said because of Doller's seven prior convictions, the sentence was appropriate.
Doller was on parole on a previous drug conviction in 2006, after pleading guilty to more than 60 charges stemming from a 10-month investigation by the state attorney general's Bureau of Narcotics Investigation, along with state and area police, called “Operation Front Men,” which arrested two dozen county residents in November 2005. He was sentenced to 10 to 25 years in prison followed by 5 years of probation for his role in the cocaine ring, and had been released from state prison in 2017,
Goldinger said that parole hit could net Doller another 15 years in prison on top of Thursday's sentence.
Doller was charged with the new crimes by state police after incidents on Oct. 4, 6 and 13.
In the Oct, 4 incident Doller was accused of selling three grams of heroin to a confidential informant for $450 on North Main Street in Butler.
Two days later, Doller was accused of arranging to sell 104 stamp bags of heroin at North Jackson and West Brady streets in Butler for $460. Police said it was determined that the heroin weighed more than 4.75 grams and contained fentanyl.
A week later, according to court documents, he agreed to sell another 109 bags, on Oct. 13, 2016, at North Main and West Penn streets in Butler for $415. Police said the heroin was found to weigh 3.2 grams and contained fentanyl.
Goldinger said after the proceeding that he was pleased with the outcome.
“This is another case where we are sending a message that we will not tolerate any more drug dealers coming into our community and selling heroin,” he said,
