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Saturday, May 18, 2013 | 4:39 a.m.

Posted: 9:48 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 21, 2013

Convicted drug dealer to get new sentence due to verdict slip-up in Blair Co.

By WJAC Web Staff and The Associated Press

HOLLIDAYSBURG, Pa. —


A man serving a 31- to 82-year prison term must be must be resentenced because his verdict slip wrongly said he had supplied cocaine, not heroin, to a convicted central Pennsylvania drug dealer.

The Altoona Mirror reported Thursday that 36-year-old Michael Serrano, of Philadelphia, must be resentenced within 90 days because of the Superior Court ruling that vacated the sentence imposed by a Blair County judge last year.

County prosecutors argued the verdict slip error was nothing more than a harmless typographical error, and that the charge on the verdict slip should have reflected that Serrano was accused -- and then convicted -- of supplying heroin.

But the Superior Court found the mistake resulted in Serrano's conviction for a crime he didn't commit, namely, supplying cocaine.

Serrano was charged in late 2010 as part of a state investigation known as Operation Got Shorty. The investigation began in September 2009 and focused on cocaine and heroin distribution in Blair County by Gene "Shorty" Carter.

 

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