Trending
HOLLIDAYSBURG -- One of the four individuals taken into custody in June 2025 for trafficking narcotics out of a Fifth Avenue residence was admitted into the disposition in lieu of trial program during Blair County plea court Friday morning.
Altoona resident Heather Joy McConahay, 38, is facing three felony counts of possession with intent to deliver, a felony count of criminal conspiracy to commit possession with intent to deliver and two misdemeanor counts each of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia across two separate but related cases.
McConahay appeared for the hearing alongside defense attorney Daniel Kiss, who told presiding Judge Jackie Atherton Bernard that District Attorney Pete Weeks was agreeing with McConahay's entrance into the program because it felt "appropriate."
According to the Blair County website, the disposition in lieu of trial or criminal punishment "is a statutory program for individuals charged with nonviolent crimes and who claim to be drug dependent" who request appropriate treatment prior to trial. It further states that "upon successful completion of the program, individuals receive a dismissal of their charges" and that "an individual may only receive disposition in lieu of trial or criminal punishment once."
Kiss said McConahay would be in the program for five years, to which assistant district attorney Dani McCormick agreed.
When Bernard asked why Weeks felt the program was a good fit for McConahay, McCormick said the two cases were the only ones on McConahay's record and that she had provided critical testimony during the trial of one of her co-defendants.
Kiss stated that McConahay had also served 90 days in the Blair County Prison before posting bail and spent 45 days in in-patient rehab.
Bernard then ordered that McConahay's charges be held in abeyance pending her completion of the program.
The cases were brought against McConahay after Altoona police conducted surveillance in the area of 40th Street and Fifth Avenue and determined narcotics were being distributed from a home along the 4000 block of Fifth Avenue. Upon the execution of a search warrant, officers heard a crash and saw a male fleeing the residence from a second-story window. The male was apprehended and identified as Philadelphia resident Amir Carter, 22. Inside the residence, officers detained Altoona resident Joseph Michael Lojeski, 45, and Philadelphia resident Eric Lamont Eberhart, 25.
A search of the residence turned up 16 bricks of heroin, 20 grams of crack cocaine and 78 grams of psychedelic mushrooms worth a total $11,700, as well as $2,010 in cash. During the search, McConahay returned to the residence and was also detained.
Bernard sentenced Eberhart in January to 3.5- to 10-years' incarceration and sentenced Lojeski in June to eight months' probation. Carter was sentenced to 84 to 168 months, or seven to 14 years in a state correctional institution.
Mirror Staff Writer Rachel Foor-Musselman is at 814-946-7458.