Man returns to court
Last November, a panel of Fayette County jurors listened to evidence in three separate drug cases involving Christopher Leake, and after more than a day of deliberations, the jury could not reach a verdict. Deputy prosecutor Mark D. Brooks found out a possible reason for the hung jury just hours after a judge declared a mistrial: one of the jurors was under investigation for dealing drugs.
On Monday, Leake was back on trial for allegedly selling an undercover informant a total of 114.1 grams of cocaine on three occasions in 2002.
Leake, 41, of 225 Michael St., Uniontown, is charged with three counts each of possession, possession with intent to deliver and delivery of cocaine.
Court documents indicate that an undercover informant working with police thrice met with Leake in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn in North Union Township in 2002.
Police allege he sold to the informant 28.4 grams of crack May 5, 28.5 grams of crack on May 16 and 57.2 grams of crack June 6.
After a few hours of deliberations after his November trial, jurors seemed to come to a decision, summoning the judge to announce a verdict in the case.
After a guilty verdict was announced, however, the jury was polled, meaning jurors have to announce their individual verdict.
It was then that juror Joseph Samol told the judge he wasn’t sure that his verdict was guilty after all.
Judge John F. Wagner Jr. had the jury deliberate for another day before declaring they were deadlocked.
Several hours later, Brooks, who coordinates the county’s drug task force, got a call that Samol was under investigation for selling drugs. He was arrested later in the day when he allegedly sold a half-ounce of cocaine to an undercover informant.
Samol’s case is in Fayette County Court. Leake’s trial will resume this morning before Judge Ralph C. Warman.