PA Man on Parole Following a Murder Conviction is Sentenced to 6+ Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking

PITTSBURGH, PA – Stephen Barnes was sentenced to 75 months in federal prison for heroin and crack cocaine trafficking, United States Attorney Scott W. Brady announced today.

Barnes, age 51, previously resided in the Pittsburgh area and in Philadelphia. United States District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed the sentence. Judge Fischer also ordered Barnes to serve four years of supervised release upon his release from prison.

From March 2018 to May 2018, while Barnes was on state parole following a prior murder conviction, he distributed large quantities of fentanyl, crack cocaine, and heroin in Western Pennsylvania. Barnes’s drug distribution came to an end in May 2018 when he got caught while driving 296 bricks of heroin to Western Pennsylvania. He intended to distribute the heroin in Western Pennsylvania.

Assistant United States Attorney Craig W. Haller prosecuted this case on behalf of the United States.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Office of the Pennsylvania Attorney General, and the Pennsylvania State Police conducted the investigation leading to the conviction and sentence in this case.