Tyrone Higgins

A Pittsburgh man, charged alongside a Butler County woman with selling counterfeit drugs, pleaded guilty in the case Wednesday.

Tyrone M. Higgins, 35, pleaded guilty to felony conspiracy to commit possession with the intent to distribute a controlled substance and misdemeanor false identification before President Judge Thomas Doerr.

The plea agreement calls for a sentence of 15 to 45 months in state prison, fines and court costs when he is sentenced on May 3.

Higgins was also initially charged with misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia, which will be dismissed as part of the plea.

He was charged alongside Kashmir M. Wissinger, 27, who pleaded guilty Tuesday to felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance in this case. She was then immediately sentenced to 15 to 45 months in a state correctional facility, as well as the payment of court costs

Butler Township police filed the charges May 23, after Wissinger's car was found in a Butler Township motel parking lot on Route 8. When the officer ran the vehicle's license plate, it was found that Wissinger was wanted by state parole authorities.

It was found that Wissinger had checked into the room with two men. When police entered, only Higgins and Wissinger were inside. In Wissinger's purse, police turned up 12 stamp bags containing what they thought was heroin and a baggie containing suspected cocaine, as well as 353 empty stamp bags, eight syringes and other drug contraband, police said.

A book bag in Wissinger's room had additional contraband, including 19 empty stamp bags. Both Wissinger and Higgins denied the book bag was theirs.

Later at the police station, court documents said, Wissinger admitted the suspected heroin was not heroin, but cocoa and baking soda, and that Higgins was packaging it and selling it to “rip people off,” according to a police affidavit.

Police said they eventually determined that Higgins, who had initially given a bogus name, was wanted on a bench warrant out of Allegheny County.