A Clarion County man serving a three-and-a-half- to seven-year prison sentence after a Butler County jury convicted him of drug delivery charges in July — even though state police mistakenly destroyed the physical evidence before the trial — is seeking a new trial.

Dillon James Trice, 34, of New Bethlehem, Clarion County, watched and listened remotely from a state prison in Forest County on Thursday, Oct. 29, to a Common Pleas Court hearing on his postsentence motion.

His trial attorney, Zachary Coblentz, argued the motion at the hearing before Judge Joseph Kubit, who didn’t immediately issue a ruling.

Trice was the backseat passenger in a car a trooper pulled over for a traffic violation June 17, 2022, on Route 28 in Buffalo Township.

At the conclusion of his two-day trial this June, Trice was found guilty of a felony count of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver and a misdemeanor count of possession of a controlled substance. Police said 120 stamp bags of heroin/fentanyl with a street value of $1,200 and a small amount of crystal methamphetamine were found in a backpack that was on the backseat next to where Trice had been seated.

A receipt from a Dollar General store in Kittanning found in the backpack was presented as evidence to connect Trice to the drugs. A video of Trice in the store buying candy earlier that day was played for the jury. The candy was found in the backpack. The debit card he used in the purchase was found in his wallet, and the receipt included the card number, police said.

State police testified that the backpack, drugs and other evidence were mistakenly destroyed before the trial.

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. Trice and Cessna were passengers in the car. The woman driver was not charged. A fourth party owned the car.

At Thursday’s hearing Coblentz argued that the evidence against Trice was unreliable and not sufficient to maintain the conviction. He said the destruction of the evidence left him unable to examine the evidence that was attributed to Trice, and made it impossible to identify the owner of the backpack.

No photos of Trice carrying the backpack were presented as evidence, the user of an iPad found in the backpack was not identified and there are no fingerprints or DNA evidence linking Trice to the drugs, Coblentz said.

He argued that a phone call in which police testified that Trice confessed to selling drugs because he needed money and owning the iPad was not recorded.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew Calve argued that the evidence proved Trice had “constructive” possession of the drugs.

Trice was the only passenger in the backseat, and the video from Dollar General shows him buying something. A bag from the store was found in the backpack, Calve said.

He said the woman who leaned into the car did not touch the backpack, and Trice admitted to selling drugs.

The lack of physical evidence hurt the prosecution, but had minimal impact in the trial, Calve said. No contradictory facts were presented during the prosecution, and the facts presented are insurmountable, he said.