Metro

HOLLIDAYSBURG — The alleged head of an Altoona drug ring charged with third-degree murder after being implicated in the 2022 overdose death of 26-year-old Marlana Koehle will plead guilty to a lesser charge of voluntary manslaughter in exchange for 14- to 30-years’ incarceration.

Rickey Sharief Joyner, 45, was scheduled for jury selection Tuesday, with a two-day trial set to begin today. Along with the felony third-degree murder charge, Joyner originally faced a corrupt organizations, criminal conspiracy, dealing in unlawful proceeds, knowledge that property is the proceeds of unlawful acts, criminal use of a communication facility, three felony counts of conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver and 22 felony counts of possession with intent to deliver.

Joyner appeared alongside defense attorney Matthew Joseph McGregor for the selection in front of Senior Judge Michael A. George of Adams County when he decided to take the plea.

Deputy Attorney General David Gorman said Joyner would be pleading guilty to all charges in exchange for a state prison sentence of 14 to 30 years. As part of the agreement, Joyner’s felony third-degree murder charge would be downgraded to felony voluntary manslaughter and the sentence would run concurrently and coterminously with the rest of the sentence, meaning Joyner’s sentences would both run at the same time and end at the same time as each other.

Joyner would also receive credit for time served since about July 30, 2025, when he was jailed with bail denied.

George asked Gorman if Koehle’s family had been informed of the agreement, to which Gorman said the Blair County District Attorney’s Office was not able to get in contact with them in time for the hearing.

As part of the plea agreement involved downgrading Joyner’s leading charge, and because that single count had previously been severed from the other charges in the case, George said he would defer accepting the deal at that count until the family had been consulted.

Gorman told George that the deal would include Joyner pleading guilty to all charges in the new case currently pending at the district magistrate level, in which Joyner was charged with single felony counts of dealing in unlawful proceeds, contraband – controlled substance, conspiracy – contraband, possession of a controlled substance by an inmate, criminal use of a communication facility, possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver.

George accepted the plea deal except for the count of voluntary manslaughter and scheduled Joyner for sentencing at 9 a.m. July 14 in courtroom six of the Blair County Courthouse.

Joyner was one of seven local residents taken into custody in June 2025 after a statewide grand jury investigation recommended criminal charges against them for running a suspected drug ring.

The drug-trafficking investigation began after Altoona police received a call in November 2022 for a suspected drug overdose.

On scene, they found a woman, later identified as Koehle, who had died of a multi-drug overdose that included fentanyl and cocaine. Police searched the area and found half of a blue pill and white powder, which were later tested and confirmed to be fentanyl and cocaine, according to the report.

A forensic pathologist determined the concentration of fentanyl in Koehle’s body was sufficient to have caused her death. He said fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 60 times more potent than oxycodone. He also indicated it isn’t surprising that an overdose occurs when an individual ingests what they believe to be oxycodone tablets, but in reality contains fentanyl.

Joyner was charged alongside Tareek Alquan Hemingway, 32; Laura Rutherford Horne, 28; Matthew Lewis Rodriguez, 40; Cecylia Antoinette Thompson, 33; Milton Lavale Williams, 49, and Kirsten Lindsay Wright, 36.

Hemingway was sentenced to five- to 10-years’ incarceration in a state correctional institute in late April after entering a no-contest plea in late March.

Rodriguez is scheduled for sentencing July 13 after a jury conviction in early March. Wright is also scheduled for sentencing July 13 after accepting a plea deal.

Williams was sentenced in November 2025 to six months to 23.5 months in the Blair County Prison.

The cases against Horne and Thompson remain active and await disposition.

In the contraband case, Joyner’s co-defendants Mandi Lynn Claycomb, 42, and Chedell Maurice Henderson Jr., 39, were arraigned on identical charges of single felony counts of dealing in unlawful proceeds, contraband – controlled substance, conspiracy – contraband, criminal use of a communication facility, possession with intent to deliver and conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver. They were remanded to the Blair County Prison after being unable to pay their respective $500,000 bails.

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