Man sentenced to state prison in heroin case
A Butler man, originally from Ohio, was sentenced to state prison Wednesday, after being charged with heroin distribution.
Tony F. Smith, 43, originally of Cleveland, was sentenced to 22 to 44 months of incarceration in a state correctional facility by Butler County President Judge Thomas Doerr.
Doerr also gave Smith 308 days time served credit, and ordered him to pay court costs.
His attorney, Dennis McCurdy, asked that Smith remain in Butler County Prison, where he has been incarcerated since Aug. 3, 2017, and has completed several programs while in the jail.
“This is a defendant who has spent his time trying to take advantage of any program available to him,” McCurdy said.
He said Smith intends to return to Cleveland to be with his family after he is paroled.
Doerr said he fashioned the state prison sentence because more programs will be available to Smith, and “your chances of parole are better at a state facility.”
Smith previously pleaded guilty to felony possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance on May 15.
Two other cases were also dismissed as part of the plea.
In the case to which he pleaded, Smith was initially charged with felony possession with intent, criminal use of a communications facility, misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia after an incident on March 20, 2015.
State police filed the charges after he sold an unspecified number of stamp bags of heroin to a police informant at a convenience store parking lot on Jefferson Street. The heroin weighed 0.22 grams, police said.
In the two cases that were dismissed, Smith was also charged with the same counts in both incidents, after state police said he sold 3.09 grams of marijuana to an informant at an apartment in the 300 block of West Jefferson Street on May 13, 2015, and 3.24 grams of crack to an informant in an alley near Second Avenue on May 23, 2015.
