Man convicted of cocaine trafficking

MARION - A jury returned a guilty verdict on a charge of trafficking in cocaine last week against Jose Valdez Jr., who previously pleaded guilty to a trafficking in heroin charge.

The verdict was returned Nov. 20, with sentencing set for Dec. 11, according to Valdez's attorney John Rutan, who declined to comment until after that date.

An additional trafficking in cocaine count was dismissed after Marion County Common Pleas Judge Jim Slagle ruled in partial favor of Rutan's motion that MARMET detectives acted without a warrant, suppressing the evidence related to that charge.

The case relied upon three controlled drug buys by a confidential informant working with the MARMET Task Force, according to court filings, and Rutan argued that use of audio and video surveillance constituted a warrantless search without consent.

Slagle found that in the first controlled buy, on April 28, 2015, the informant did not gain permission before entering Valdez's residence and ruled any evidence from that operation inadmissible, but he permitted the other two case findings, where 29.67 grams of cocaine and 6.9 grams of heroin were purchased on May 4 and July 6, respectively.

Court records show Detective Matthew Baldridge said the informant had previously been arrested and agreed to cooperate in drug buys to avoid prosecution. The drugs were taken as evidence, while $2,100 was used in the three purchases and recovered during a search of Valdez's residence at 142 N. Grand Ave.

Without the other two convictions, Prosecutor Brent Yager said, his office probably would have appealed Slagle's finding. Assistant Prosecutor Denise Martin handled the case, but she could not be reached for comment.

Yager said that between the three unrelated convictions of Robert Gervin and Cordarius Jones in the May firebombing case, Durain Land's conviction on heroin and cocaine charges, and this case, several traffickers who "moved heavy amounts" of narcotics will have significant prison terms.

shickey@marionstar.com

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Twitter: @SpenserHickey