Philly man sentenced to jail for selling drugs
A 27-year-old Philadelphia man was sentenced to jail by a Butler County judge Thursday for selling drugs in the city.
Damar M. Holmes, 27, was arrested last year during a drug bust in Butler stemming from an investigation by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General's Bureau of Narcotics.
On Thursday, Judge William Shaffer sentenced Holmes to jail for 15 to 36 months. He received 460 days of credit for time already served.
As part of the plea deal Holmes reached with prosecutors, his incarceration would be served in Butler County Prison, where he has been since his arrest last year on a $250,000 bond. The other part of the deal requires the state to maintain responsibility for him, requiring Holmes to go through a parole board hearing before being released for serving his minimum sentence.
Holmes pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to one felony count of manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver.
Holmes was arrested, along with 20-year-old Wayne J. Davis, in the drug bust. Davis pleaded guilty in March to two felony counts of manufacture, delivery, or possession with intent to manufacture or deliver.
Investigators said they used a police informant May 3, 2018, to set up a drug deal with Holmes. According to court documents, the deal was made by cell phone and called for Holmes to sell two “bricks” of heroin to the informant in exchange for $450.
A brick is a bundle of up to 50 single-dose glassine bags of heroin.
The informant drove to East Brady Street where he met Holmes, officers said. The two traveled by vehicle to a home on the 200 block of Zeigler Avenue. The defendant went inside and quickly returned to the vehicle with the heroin.
On June 3, 2018, the informant again contacted Holmes to arrange to buy two more bricks of heroin, according to investigators. The informant drove to the Comfort Inn off Route 8 south in Butler Township.
Holmes and Davis exited the hotel carrying luggage and entered the informant's car. State narcotics officers stopped the defendants in the vehicle at South Main and Wayne streets in Butler.
Holmes and Davis were found with $4,964 in cash. They also had 540 stamp bags of suspected heroin, documents said, as well as 30 grams of crack and 53.6 grams of marijuana.
