A retired state police sergeant testified Tuesday that the totality of the evidence in a drug possession and delivery case against a Clarion County man was overwhelming. However, none of it was available for the jury to inspect.

The attorney representing defendant, Dillon James Trice, 34, of New Bethlehem, repeatedly pointed out the evidence had been destroyed.

The trial for Trice, who is facing a felony charge of possession of 120 stamp bags of heroin/fentanyl with intent to deliver and two misdemeanor counts of possession, began in Butler County Common Pleas Court Tuesday, June 23.

In addition to the heroin/fentanyl, police said he was in possession of a small amount of crystal methamphetamine.

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

The front-seat passenger, 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.

Charges were not filed against the woman who was driving the car, which was owned by someone else.

Trooper Clayton Lehmeier testified that in June 2023, he was assigned about five cases previously assigned to Sgt. Jeremy Bowser after he retired. He said he was instructed to close out the cases in which no charges were filed.

In May 2024, he said he opened a list of pending cases and found the Trice case, but didn’t check to determine if the case was active. He said he closed the case and submitted an evidence disposition form required to destroy evidence.

“I made a mistake,” Lehmeier said of the incident.

He said he didn’t realize a status conference in the case was pending and checked a box on the form that indicated the case had been cleared. In parenthesis, near the box, is a reminder to contact the district attorney’s office. He said he didn’t contact the district attorney’s office in Trice’s case and has never checked with the office when he submits evidence disposition forms.

He said he never saw the evidence and doesn’t know when it was destroyed.

The evidence was available for inspection before it was destroyed, but he said he never received a request from anyone to inspect it.

Bowser, the officer initially assigned to the case, was the first witness to testify. He said he was a corporal when he conducted the traffic stop.

“The occupants were confrontational from the beginning,” Bowser said.

He said Trice initially said he didn’t have his driver’s license, but later asked if he could get his wallet from the car after Bowser said he was going to obtain a warrant to search the car and have it towed.

A video of the traffic stop recorded from Bowser’s patrol vehicle was played for the jury.

He said Trice changed his account regarding where he, Cessna and the woman had been and what they had been doing before the stop. Trice first said he had a job working on railroad tracks, then later said he didn’t have a job, Bowser said.

“It was very apparent he was lying,” Bowser said.

Photos of the destroyed evidence were displayed for the jury.

Bowser said a backpack found on the back seat next to where Trice was sitting contained the heroin/fentanyl and the methamphetamine was found in a cigarette pack inside the backpack.

A receipt from a Dollar General store in Kittanning found in the backpack links Trice to the drugs, Bowser said. 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, Bowser said.

A receipt from a withdrawal from a McKees Rocks bank account, also made earlier in the day, was found in the pack, but Trice didn’t have any cash in his possession and no cash was found in the pack or the car, Bowser said.

He said he learned through experience from working along Route 28 people commonly go to McKees Rocks to buy drugs at a low cost and then sell the drugs at a higher cost in northern counties. The heroin/fentanyl had a street value of $1,200, he added.

Bowser said Trice called him four times before charges were filed against him. In one call, Trice said he sold drugs, but didn’t use them, and that he wanted his property returned. In a later call, he said he didn’t own the backpack, Bowser said.

Under cross-examination, Bowser said he did not take photos of Trice’s wallet, which was found under the rear of the driver’s seat, or his credit cards, but he did photograph the debit card he used at the Dollar General.

He also said he didn’t record the phone call in which Trice admitted to selling drugs.

Bowser said there was no effort to obtain fingerprints from the evidence or conduct DNA testing.