Man denied new trial in drug sale

Stitt has been trying to request a retrial since his 2019 conviction

HOLLIDAYSBURG -- An Altoona man who has been fighting to prove his innocence in a 2017 drug sale has lost his latest quest for a new trial.

President Judge Elizabeth Doyle, after reviewing Nickolas B. Stitt's post-sentence motion, issued a Nov. 28 opinion concluding that Stitt's evidence in pursuit of a new trial amounts to hearsay.

Stitt, represented by defense attorney Benjamin Kahn, tried to convince Doyle that he should have a new trial because of material that surfaced after his conviction.

Stitt submitted an affidavit from a woman reporting to be in a relationship with the confidential informant who told her that he "duped" Altoona police with "a fake buy on Nick Stitt."

But during a June 13 hearing, the girlfriend described the informant as "a pathological liar" and that she had no firsthand knowledge about the events leading up to Stitt's arrest.

The woman also said she was unaware of Stitt's arrest until well after the fact.

Doyle, who reviewed benchmarks to consider granting a new trial, said Stitt's position fell short for lack of supportive evidence.

"The evidence presented by (Stitt) is hearsay and it was not made from personal or firsthand knowledge," she wrote. "As such, the court finds that evidence is not of such a nature and character that a different verdict would have resulted if a new trial is granted."

Doyle considered Stitt's challenge at the direction of the state Superior Court, which issued a ruling in October 2022 concluding that Stitt was entitled to an evidentiary hearing on his position that he was "set up" for the drug buy.

The court also returned Stitt's case to Blair County for a hearing to determine if Stitt could afford the $500 fine imposed when he was sentenced for possession with intent to deliver, possession of a controlled substance and illegal use of a communication device convictions. To address that portion of the Superior Court directive, Judge Daniel J. Milliron, who imposed Stitt's sentence in 2019, chose to vacate the fine.

When Stitt filed his appeals with the state Superior Court in late 2021, he had already been released from a state prison where he completed a 33 to 96 month sentence that Milliron handed down. At the time he filed the appeals, Stitt told the Mirror that he still wanted to prove his innocence. The jury that heard his case in 2018 convicted him of selling five pills of Suboxone and Zuiubsolv to the confidential informant, resulting in his December 2017 arrest.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 814-946-7456.