Hidalgo

HOLLIDAYSBURG — A Buffalo, N.Y., man convicted of trafficking heroin in Blair County in the late 1990s is being released from state prison in light of a 12-to-24 year sentence handed down Thursday to replace a sentence of 60 to 150 years imposed in 2000.

Senior Judge Timothy M. Sullivan imposed the new sentence on Efrain G. Hidalgo Jr., 50, and awarded immediate release since Hidalgo has been incarcerated for 24½ years.

Hidalgo, who participated in Thursday’s sentencing hearing by video from the state prison at Albion in Erie, responded with appreciative remarks.

“This is not a mistake,” the inmate said as he spoke of a future that will make use of his prison vocational training, work assignments and artistic talent. “I am going to succeed with the rest of my life.”

Two years ago, Hidalgo’s repeated efforts to challenge his convictions and his 60-to-150 year sentence appeared to be at a standstill.

After losing several challenges during an appeals process stretching over two decades, Hidalgo, in February 2022, filed a Post Conviction Relief Act Petition in county court on his own behalf, accusing sentencing Judge Norman D. Callan of racial bias.

His accusation was based on a statement Callan made in a USA Today Dec. 7, 2021, newspaper story detailing Hidalgo’s unsuccessful efforts to challenge his de facto life sentence.

The USA Today story identified Hidalgo as a Native American and referenced Bureau of Justice Statistics showing Native Americans to be 38% more likely to be incarcerated than the U.S. population, as a whole.

In response, Callan agreed that people of color are overrepresented in the state’s prisons, then added: “Whether it’s Native American, Hispanic American or African American, there’s a disproportionate number in prison because they do a disproportionate amount of crime.”

Pittsburgh-area attorneys Stephanie Noel and Ryan James, with help from Penn State educators and others, refined Hidalgo’s original PCRA and in mid-2023, filed their version. In it, they pointed out why Callan was wrong and asked for a new sentence based on judicial bias.

“…The criminological research literature shows there are more arrests, charges and convictions of people of color not because they actually commit a disproportionate amount of crime but, rather, because race impacts crime reporting, police behavior, arrest and charging decisions, as well as sentencing dispositions,” Noel wrote in the amended PCRA.

When Callan handed down Hidalgo’s sentence in 2000, he recognized Hidalgo as someone who had spread “poison” throughout the community that ruined many lives. Prosecutors at that time said Hidalgo didn’t use heroin, but profited greatly from its sale and teased the addicts who became sick and begged for the drug.

The jury that heard the case convicted Hidalgo of five counts of possession with intent to deliver heroin, one count of criminal conspiracy, one count of dealing in proceeds of an unlawful act and two counts of participating in a corrupt organization.

In late 2023, Sullivan directed the state Attorney General’s office to address the arguments Noel and James offered in their PCRA on Hidalgo’s behalf.

In response, Deputy Attorney General Gregory J. Simatic asked for time to file a response, with his last request for an extension filed on Dec. 28 with the county court. While Sullivan granted Simatic’s earlier requests, he filed a one-page order in January vacating Hidalgo’s original sentence, then scheduled the resentencing.

In court Thursday, Simatic told Sullivan that his office recognizes Hidalgo’s crimes as serious and that Hidalgo has paid a serious price.

While Simatic’s office contested Hidalgo’s prior appeals, Simatic said it chose this time to recognize that Hidalgo has been incarcerated for 24½ years.

“The sentence he got today is a sentence that would be handed down in a contemporary case with the same charges,” the prosecutor said.

As for challenging the claims in the PCRA petition relevant to Callan’s published statement, Simatic declined to comment.

Outside court, Noel said it was Callan’s published statement that opened the door for Hidalgo to raise his latest challenge.

“(Callan’s) statement allowed us to come back to court,” Noel said. “But I think the reason Mr. Hidalgo is getting out is because of the 24 years he has already been in prison and because of the person he has become.”

When addressing Sullivan in court, Hidalgo offered an apology to the citizens of Blair County and said he was ashamed of the person he was.

When he stood before Callan for sentencing, he was 27 years old.

“I only thought of myself back then and no one else,” Hidalgo said.

Noel and James, in asking Sullivan to hand down a new sentence of 12 to 25 years, filed a memorandum offering their assurance that Hidalgo recognizes the gravity of his crimes or the impact that his actions had on others.

They also pointed out that Hidalgo’s original sentence of 60 to 120 years made him ineligible for parole before his 86th birthday, a fact that would generate little incentive for an inmate destined to die in prison.

“Ironically enough,” the attorneys wrote, “Mr. Hidalgo’s lengthy term of imprisonment brought into sharp focus the value of his own life, and he found meaning in a place where there is little hope.”

Sullivan on Thursday commended Hidalgo, while incarcerated, for getting his high school diploma, in addition to his certification as a refrigeration technician.

“You put yourself in the position you’re in today,” the judge said. “You took advantage of the opportunities offered.”

Hidalgo said it was incarceration that gave him a chance to discover that he has many talents. He said he learned to read music and play the guitar. He said he enjoys painting and offered to share pieces of his artwork.

Records submitted for Sullivan’s review indicated that while incarcerated for 24 years, Hidalgo accrued only four misconducts, the last in 2009.

Hidalgo said his efforts while incarcerated were self-motivated.

“I needed to prove to myself that I was better than that young man who was sentenced,” he said.

Noel said Hidalgo has plans to go home to Canada, where he will live with his mother on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Ontario.

She said he has plans to work and if given an opportunity, to mentor at-risk youth, something that Sullivan encouraged Hidalgo to pursue.

“Our troubled youth don’t have enough positive role models,” Sullivan said.

“He wants to do his part to ensure that nobody goes down the path he did,” Noel said.

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