Alleged dealer faces more drug charges
An alleged drug dealer's phone wouldn't stop alerting him even after Butler police arrested him Wednesday evening.
Police don't know who was texting 37-year-old Anthony S. McGuire but they are hoping to find out. They say they plan to seek a search warrant for the cell phone.
McGuire, who has no known address, remains in the Butler County Prison on $100,000 bail. He is charged with felony and misdemeanor drug possession.
Officers were watching for the defendant, who was wanted on a bench warrant, when they spotted a man shortly before 7 p.m. get into the passenger seat of a car at a store on East Jefferson Street.
The man looked like McGuire. Patrolman Caleb Forsythe quickly stopped the car. He suspected the driver, Kristin M. Baker, 41, of Butler, was intoxicated.
Police Sgt. Ben Spangler arrested McGuire on the bench warrant.
Butler County Court records showed that warrant was issued May 23 after he failed to appear for a hearing in a felony drug case.
Spangler searched the defendant and found 40 stamp bags of suspected heroin and a bag containing 3.1 grams of suspected crack cocaine, according to court documents. The officer also seized $80 in currency and a cell phone.
The phone, Spangler said in his affidavit, “was ringing consistently after McGuire was placed in (the) patrol vehicle.”
The defendant was taken to the Butler County Prison, where he admitted that he had more drugs on him. A search, police said, turned up five additional stamp bags of suspected heroin inside his shorts.
McGuire was arraigned on two counts each of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance.
He is already awaiting trial on charges stemming from a state police drug trafficking investigation earlier this year.
He is accused in that case of selling eight stamp bags of fentanyl, two stamp bags of heroin and 0.29 grams of crack during a $150 drug deal Feb. 12, 2016, at the Pullman Square shopping plaza in Butler.
In this week's case, police arrested Baker for suspicion of driving under the influence. They also found two crack cocaine pipes containing suspected crack in her purse, documents said.
She admitted, police said, that she recently learned that McGuire, a friend, was wanted by police. But she did not notify authorities and continued to provide him with transportation, according to court documents.
A breath test subsequently showed her blood-alcohol level was 0.15 percent. A level of 0.08 percent is considered intoxicated under state law.
Baker is charged by summons with DUI, possession of a controlled substance and drug paraphernalia, and hindering apprehension.
