Kasa D. Brennan, whose fiance was murdered in 2010 in their Shenandoah home, was properly convicted of possessing cocaine and drug paraphernalia in May 2011 in West Mahanoy Township, a three-judge state Superior Court has decided.
In a six-page opinion filed Monday in Pottsville, the panel ruled the evidence supported the conviction of Brennan, 28, of Shenandoah.
"There was sufficient evidence of (Brennan's) constructive possession of cocaine," Judge Jacqueline O. Shogan wrote in the panel's opinion.
As a result, Brennan's sentence of one to two years in a state correctional institution, followed by two years of probation, stands. She already has been released from behind bars to serve her parole and probation.
A jury convicted Brennan on June 4, 2012, of possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Judge Jacqueline L. Russell, who presided over Brennan's one-day trial, sentenced her on July 20, 2012. In addition to the prison term and consecutive probation, Russell also sentenced Brennan to pay costs, $10 to the Substance Abuse Education Fund, $50 to the Criminal Justice Enhancement Account and $176 restitution to the state police crime laboratory in Bethlehem, and submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities.
West Mahanoy Township police charged Brennan with possessing 11 packets of cocaine about 4 p.m. May 30, 2011, at the Florida Tanning Salon, Shenandoah Heights. Police said she dropped a baggie containing the packets in a tanning booth at the salon, where the owner found it, and that Brennan returned to the business twice to try to find the cocaine.
In her opinion, Shogan wrote that the evidence, including Brennan's two returns to the premises and tapes from video surveillance cameras, support inferences that she possessed the cocaine, dropped it and came back to look for it.
"The totality of the circumstances support the conclusion that (Brennan) dropped the cocaine upon leaving tanning room #8, and upon discovering she dropped the cocaine, she returned to regain possession," Shogan wrote. "Thus, (Brennan) controlled the contraband, and by returning to retrieve it, she illustrated her intent to exercise control over it."
Furthermore, Shogan wrote, an undercover detective's expert testimony supported the conclusion that the packaging demonstrated Brennan's intention to deliver the cocaine to others. If Brennan had intended to use the cocaine herself, she would not have bought individual packets, the detective testified.
Judge Sallie Updyke Mundy and Senior Judge Robert E. Colville, the other panel members, joined in Shogan's opinion.
Brennan's fiance, Bruce D. Forker, 24, of Shenandoah, died on March 16, 2010, when he was shot in the back of the head by one of two men who broke into the 333 E. Centre St. residence he shared with her and their two children.
Damon L. Ennett, 32, of Freeland, and Jamhal Ollivirre, 22, of Reading, received state prison terms for their roles in Forker's death, while Julius C. Enoe, 35, of Reading, was acquitted of all charges after two trials in the county court at which Brennan testified. Ennett is incarcerated at SCI/Coal Township while Ollivirre is imprisoned in New York on other unrelated charges.