Police: Donora man confesses to owning heroin tied to another case
A Donora man appears to have volunteered to go to jail in another suspect’s drug case.
Borough police said Cody Allen Stoffer, 26, showed up at the other suspect’s preliminary hearing March 8 and confessed to owning the heroin and crack that led to charges being filed a month earlier against Christian Alexander “Criddy” Lowe, court records allege.
“I asked Stoffer why he is approaching me attempting to take ownership of the drugs, and he said because they belonged to him and he didn’t want Lowe to get in trouble for them,” Donora Patrolman Michael Parry stated in the affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Stoffer.
The investigation began when Washington County probation officers summoned Donora police after they allegedly discovered 44 stamp bags of heroin and small bags of crack and marijuana in Lowes’ residence at 451 Fifth St. about 9:30 a.m. Feb. 16 during a compliance check.
The March 8 hearing for Lowe, 26, was continued to the following day, when he waived to Washington County Court a string of drug possession counts before District Judge Mark Wilson, online court records show. Lowe also is awaiting trial in another drug case. He remains in Washington County jail on $250,000 bond
Following Stoffer’s alleged confession in the case, he was arraigned Tuesday before Wilson on charges of drug possession with intent to deliver and drug possession. Wilson sent Stoffer, of 435 Murray Ave., to the jail on $100,000 bond.
Police said Stoffer knew the quantity and locations of the drugs that were seized from Lowe, and that the officer reminded him about that information having been published in newspapers.
Stoffer also told police no one threatened or coerced him into confessing in the case to help Lowe.
The officer also told Stoffer he was violating his parole for accepting the charges, and that he will be returned him to a state prison over the confession, the record states.
“He said, ‘It doesn’t bother me. Go ahead,’ and laughed about the situation,” Parry noted in the affidavit.
Stoffer also insisted that Parry take his handwritten confession in the case, the record claims.
Stoffer is serving 5 years of state probation after he pleaded guilty Oct. 17 before Washington County Judge Gary Gilman,to a Donora burglary, online court records show.