HOLLIDAYSBURG — A city man on trial for his role in a Blair County drug-trafficking ring was convicted early Thursday afternoon on all 13 felony charges filed against him.

The jury of seven women and five men deliberated for about 85 minutes before returning their unanimous verdict against Matthew Lewis Rodriguez, 40, who was portrayed by prosecutors as being the driver and key distributor in a drug-trafficking ring transporting cocaine from Baltimore to Altoona.

After two days of testimony, which saw Rodriguez take the stand in his own defense, the jury pronounced Rodriguez guilty of 10 felony counts of possession with intent to deliver and single felony counts of conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver, corrupt organizations, dealing in unlawful proceeds and knowledge that property is proceeds of an illegal act.

During their deliberations, the jury returned to the courtroom to ask for clarification regarding the four parts of the felony corrupt organizations charge.

Senior Judge Michael A. George of Adams County presided over the case and scheduled Rodriguez for sentencing at 11:30 a.m. April 10.

Rodriguez, who had been free on bail, was taken into custody after Blair County District Attorney Pete Weeks asked George to revoke bail as Rodriguez was looking at a sentence “in excess of three years on each count.”

Defense attorney Scott Pletcher opposed, saying Rodriguez had appeared for trial on time every day.

When George asked Rodriguez if he had anything to say, Rodriguez told the judge “I just need a little bit more time to get my affairs in order, if that’s okay.”

George ultimately granted Weeks’s request as Rodriguez could be facing a sentence that would equate to a life in prison. He also raised Rodriguez’s bail from $75,000 to $250,000.

During closing arguments Thursday, Pletcher kept his arguments brief, telling the jury they heard testimony from witnesses facing the same or worse charges than Rodriguez.

“You also heard every inconsistency, speculation and circumstantial detail,” Pletcher said.

He described Rodriguez as a “struggling father” and told the jury they had been able to see Rodriguez’s frustration throughout the trial.

“It is not illegal to know people in a small town,” Pletcher said. “It is not illegal to make ends meet.”

In the prosecution’s closing, Deputy Attorney General David Gorman said that the jury heard more about Rodriguez’s co-defendant Rickey Joyner than Rodriguez himself throughout the trial because they were “not investigating a single defendant, but an organization” trafficking cocaine from Baltimore to Blair County.

Gorman asked the jury why the prosecution’s witnesses would collude to point the finger at Rodriguez when “he’s not even the main guy” in the drug ring.

“(Rodriguez) is just a cog in this machine,” Gorman said.

He told the jury they “can and should dismiss” Rodriguez’s testimony as untruthful and pointed to the fact that, while Rodriguez mentioned “everyone else,” he “never, ever talked about Joyner” while on the stand. Gorman said if Rodriguez had acknowledged that connection, it would have put him in the middle of the drug ring.

“Mr. Rodriguez was the driver for this organization,” Gorman said.

Following closing arguments, George gave the jurors a break before giving them their instructions. During that break, George advised the court that, after considering prior discussion, the single felony count of criminal conspiracy against Rodriguez would be stricken as it was “duplicative,” bringing Rodriguez’s number of charges down to 13.

Before the day’s proceedings began, George told Pletcher he had reserved the right to reopen his case and call an additional witness if he desired. When Pletcher indicated he did have a witness ready, Weeks told George that, while they had been prepared to cross examine the witness Pletcher originally offered, the prosecution had been notified about 9 p.m. Wednesday that the witness would be a different person.

Weeks said they had not received the new witness’s name, date of birth or Social Security number in order to undergo the witness verification process.

Pletcher told George that he was notified of the witness change by Rodriguez about 8 p.m. Wednesday. George denied Pletcher’s request to call the witness to the stand.

The verdict closes out the first trial in the drug-trafficking case, which came to light after the November 2022 overdose death of 26-year-old Marlana Koehle.

Rodriguez was charged alongside Rickey Joyner, 45; Tareek Alquan Hemingway, 32; Laura Rutherford Horne, 28; Cecylia Antoinette Thompson, 33; Milton Lavale Williams, 49, and Kirsten Lindsay Wright, 35.

Joyner is scheduled for jury selection on June 2 for the first of his two trials after his single felony count of third-degree murder was severed from his drug trafficking and related charges in late February.

Williams pleaded guilty in November 2025 to a single felony count of possession with intent to deliver cocaine and fentanyl in exchange for six to 23.5 months in the Blair County Prison, to be followed by two years’ probation.

Wright is scheduled for sentencing on June 2 after accepting a plea deal.

Horne and Thompson testified against Rodriguez in hopes of receiving leniency in their own cases. They are both scheduled for court appearances on March 31.

Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.