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Blair County Judge Jackie A. Bernard has rejected a post-conviction petition by an Altoona man who claimed he was unaware that he would receive a 12-year minimum sentence for drug offenses -- including drug delivery resulting in death -- when he pleaded guilty 28 months ago.
The defendant, Alexsi Serpas Lopez, 40, was sentenced by Bernard to a term of 12 to 30 years in a state correctional institution, but Lopez claimed he was under the impression when he entered his guilty pleas that his minimum sentence would be 10 years.
He argued he was unaware of the 12-year minimum because his trial attorney had not informed him that the prosecution had taken the 10-year minimum off the table because he failed to accept the plea offer by April 30, 2018.
Trial attorney Douglas J. Keating testified during the post-conviction hearings that Lopez knew of the 10- to 30-year proposal from former Blair County Assistant District Attorney Amanda Jacobson months before the April 30, 2018, deadline for accepting it.
Keating also testified that he spoke to Lopez on the day of the deadline and that Lopez rejected the 10- to 30-year sentence.
Lopez, however, rested his argument on the fact that correspondence from the law offices of his attorney outlining the agreement and mailed on April 27, did not arrive until May 4, 2018, indicating he was unaware of the deadline at the time it expired.
Judge Bernard concluded that Lopez had notice of the expiration date of the government's plea offer well before the deadline and that he chose to reject it.
Lopez, she stated, did not object or complain during his sentencing hearing when she imposed the 12- to 30-year sentence.
"This is a case of the defendant being an opportunist, having 'buyer's remorse,' and attempting to use a letter delivered late as the basis for a second bite at the apple on a plea/sentencing agreement," she stated in a 14-page opinion issued earlier this month.
"The court finds the testimony of attorney Keating credible and determines that the defendant has failed to meet the burden required in order to grant relief (vacate the sentence) requested," Bernard stated.
The judge's opinion reflected that intense plea bargaining occurred in the Lopez case.
Lopez, according to Bernard, rejected the 10-year minimum, but made counter offers that included an eight-year minimum, a 10-year minimum with a 20-year maximum followed by 10 years of probation, or a 12-year minimum if the prosecution agreed to a sentence of time-served for the mother of his children, Jesscia Adams, who was also charged with lesser drug offenses in the case.
Bernard stated Lopez admittedly took the pleas and sentence of 12 years to have a "positive impact upon the disposition of the case of his children's mother. ..."
According to court records, Adams was sentenced to a term of two to five years of confinement.
Lopez was charged with possession with intent to deliver heroin, criminal use of a communication facility, dealing in the proceeds of unlawful activity and drug delivery resulting in death, among other charges, after it was determined that Gregory Lynam, 29, died of fentanyl-laced heroin on March 17, 2017, while in a residence on the 800 block of Broadway in the Juniata section of Altoona.
Police were able to track the deadly heroin through two other dealers back to Lopez.
One of those dealers, Christopher Shawn Tremmel, 35, of Altoona, received 15 years' probation.
The other person arrested in the case was Adam S. Culp, 36, who recently filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
Lopez, a Brooklyn native, is incarcerated at the State Correctional Institution at Huntingdon.
He was represented during the post-conviction proceeding by attorney Paul Puskar of Hollidaysburg.
Lopez can appeal the judge's decision to the Pennsylvania Superior Court.