A Clarion County man was sentenced Thursday to serve 3½ to 7 years in prison following his conviction on drug delivery charges, even though the physical evidence in the case was mistakenly destroyed before his trial last month.

Dillon James Trice, 34, of New Bethlehem, was sentenced in Butler County Common Pleas Court to serve the time in state prison after a jury found him guilty of a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver and a misdemeanor charge of possession of a controlled substance on June 24 at the conclusion of a two-day trial. He was found not guilty of a second possession charge.

Trice was the backseat passenger in a car state police stopped for a turn-signal violation on June 17, 2022, on Route 28 in Buffalo Township.

Co-defendant Todd William Cessna, 35, of Shelocta, Indiana County, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of possession with intent to deliver in September 2024 and is serving a four- to 10-year sentence in state prison. Cessna also was a passenger in the car.

The woman driving the car was not charged. A fourth party owned the car.

State police testified during Trice’s trial that a backpack containing the drugs was located on the back seat next to where Trice had been seated. The backpack contained 120 stamp bags of a heroin/fentanyl mixture and a small amount of crystal methamphetamine, police said.

Trice’s attorney, Zachary Coblentz, argued the prosecution did not prove the drugs were in Trice’s possession and the jury couldn’t inspect the evidence to verify the testimony presented by the prosecution because it was destroyed.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Zanella said police mistakenly destroyed the evidence in May 2024. A Pennsylvania State Police trooper testified he was assigned the cases of the trooper who conducted the traffic stop and filed charges after that trooper retired. He was also assigned to close out cases in which no charges were filed. He said he didn’t check to determine if the case against Trice was active and submitted paperwork to destroy the evidence. He admitted that he made a mistake.

At Thursday’s sentencing hearing, Zanella said the felony charge carries an offense gravity score of 10 because the heroin contained fentanyl and the standard sentence in sentencing guidelines called for 42-54-month sentence. He said fentanyl is one of the most dangerous drugs.

He asked Judge Joseph Kubit to sentence Trice to 48 to 120 months, or 4 to 10 years, in prison due to the offense gravity score, a previous felony conviction for a drug charge and the need to protect the public.

Coblentz said the amounts of heroin and fentanyl that police found were not specified in a report and Trice, who has a family and works as a mechanic, has rehabilitation potential. He asked Kubit to impose the lowest lawful sentence.

Kubit said the offense gravity score is appropriate. The 42-84-month sentence he ordered falls between the sentence requested by Zanella and the standard range sentence. Kubit said the misdemeanor possession charge was merged with the felony charge for sentencing purposes and no further penalty was assessed.