QV Student Pleads Not Guilty to Marijuana Charges

An 18-year-old  senior accused of selling marijuana from his Sewickley home pleaded not guilty Tuesday in . 

Jamal Gloster of Nevin Avenue, appeared before District Judge Robert Ford to answer charges stemming from an undercover operation led by  and the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office. 

According to a criminal complaint, Gloster, who lives with his grandmother in the 900 block of Nevin Avenue, was selling marijuana out of the home resulting in his arrest on April 29.

He is charged with four counts each of delivery of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana and possession with intent to deliver; and one count each of possession with intent to use drug paraphernalia and criminal use of a cellular phone. 

Assistant District Attorney Robert Heister amended the charges Tuesday to include three additional counts related to each of the controlled drug buys on Feb. 14, March 22, April 3 and April 10. Prosecutors also added charges of receiving stolen property related to and recklessly endangering another person related to a fully-loaded assault rifle.

Narcotics agent Kristen Johnson from the AG's office testified that when authorities executed a search warrant April 11 at the home, an SKS assault rifle was thrown from a third-floor window into the backyard. She said the gun had a fully-loaded magazine with one in the chamber.

 testified a purse recovered from a desk in Gloster’s bedroom was reported stolen in January from an unlocked parked car on Nevin Avenue. Mazza said a driver’s license inside the purse identified the owner, adding that a pair of Pittsburgh Penguins hockey tickets was missing.

According to testimony, the AG’s office began investigating Gloster on Feb. 14 when a confidential informant arranged the first controlled buy over the phone. 

The informant was searched prior to making buys and drove a personal car to meet Gloster while under surveillance. Johnson said the informant paid Gloster with marked money each time. Though she was not present to witness the initial purchase, Johnson said all four transactions happened outside and the informant never went into the house.

Gloster’s attorney, Wendy Williams of Pittsburgh asked under cross examination how far away Johnson was in proximity to witnessing each transaction, to which Heister objected, calling Williams’ questions “discovery” and inappropriate for a preliminary hearing. 

“We have an 18-year-old who’s in high school, who’s repeatedly set up on these buys…I’m entitled to ask these questions,” Williams disagreed.

Williams objected to Johnson reading from the criminal affidavit during testimony, saying she wanted to hear the agent’s first-hand account. 

Johnson couldn’t give an approximate distance, but said she witnessed three transactions. She said the March 22 buy was about two blocks from Gloster’s home and the final April 10 buy happened at dark on his front porch. 

The following day, police and agents served the search warrant. In addition to a gun, Johnson said authorities recovered $241 in cash, which included $190 in marked money, two digital scales with marijuana residue, various packaging materials and 12 grams of marijuana from Gloster’s third-floor sleeping quarters.

Williams asked if Johnson specifically saw Gloster throw the gun from the window, to which Johnson replied that she saw the gun dropping to the ground, but didn't see who threw the weapon.

She said Gloster agreed to be interviewed at the Sewickley police station and told her he paid $250 for the gun from a man on Pittsburgh's North Side. She said he also spoke about going to the Strip District to get the pot he sold to about 10 customers, including an unknown male from Moon Township, to earn extra money to support his own drug habit. She said he charged $100-$200 for a quarter or half ounce.

Williams asked Johnson when Gloster became the specific target of the investigation and what the CI’s motives were to set up the controlled buys, prompting Heister to object numerous times to questions about the CI, calling them irrelevant.  

Williams later asked Judge Ford to drop several of the charges, including recklessly endangering another person, based on insufficient evidence. She argued that even if Gloster threw the gun, there wasn’t a risk to anyone. 

Heister countered that anyone within a half mile of where the rifle landed was put in danger.

“To throw a loaded assault rifle out the window is asking for disaster,” he said.

Judge Ford held all charges over for court. A formal arraignment is scheduled for June. 

Gloster didn’t speak at the hearing, but a group of family, friends and church members who attended said they were there for moral support.

Williams said Gloster has a bright future ahead of him. The senior who played on the boys varsity basketball team this year has been accepted into two universities, Kent State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania, to study business administration and is in line to receive grants and loans for school. 

He remains out on bond.