Tameeka R. Hawkins, who smuggled marijuana into a state prison in June 2012 in Schuylkill County, must remain in another state prison, a three-judge state Superior Court panel has ruled.
In a five-page opinion filed July 16 in Pottsville, the panel decided prosecutors could withdraw the guilty plea offer they had made to Hawkins, 42, of Philadelphia, because prison officials did not agree with it.
"The plea had not yet been presented to or accepted by the trial court," Senior Judge Eugene B. Strassburger III wrote in the panel's opinion.
As a result, Hawkins must serve two to four years in a state correctional institution, the sentence imposed on her on Oct. 7, 2013, by county Judge Charles M. Miller. Hawkins is serving her sentence at SCI/Muncy in Lycoming County.
In a one-day trial over which Miller presided, a jury convicted Hawkins on Aug. 27, 2013, of delivery of a controlled substance, providing contraband and possession of a small amount of marijuana.
State police at Frackville had charged Hawkins with smuggling the marijuana inside five black balloons on June 24, 2012, to her son at SCI/Mahanoy.
Hawkins asked the panel to rule prosecutors were bound by the agreement they had filed on Jan. 25, 2013, under which Hawkins would have serve four to 23 months in prison and an additional 12 months on probation.
Strassburger wrote that county President Judge William E. Baldwin determined that the interest of justice did not require enforcement of the plea agreement.
"We see no error or abuse of discretion in that conclusion," Strassburger wrote.
Hawkins raised no other issues in her appeal.
Judges Christine L. Donohue and David N. Wecht, the other panel members, joined Strassburger's opinion.