A Schuylkill County jury found a New Ringgold man guilty on four drug possession charges but stopped short on convicting him of possession with intent to deliver.

The jury found Russell J. Gernert IV, 29, guilty of possession of heroin, methamphetamine, marijuana and drug paraphernalia. They found him not guilty of possession with intent to deliver, and not guilty on possession of buprenorphine and nandrolone (a steroid).

Gernert was arrested Aug. 30, 2017, by state police trooper Christopher Mooney of Frackville. Gernert had left a half-way house called Adapt, located in Reading, and state parole agents had a warrant for his arrest when they got information that he was staying at the residence of his brother, Dustin Gernert, in New Ringgold.

Dustin Gernert gave parole agent Timothy Budgeon permission to enter the residence and search for Russell Gernert, who was found hiding in a crawl space in the basement. As he walked through the house, Budgeon noticed various drug paraphernalia in the kitchen, a second-floor bedroom and in the basement, within feet of where Gernert was hiding.

Drugs found

A search warrant was obtained and police found 5.65 grams of heroin, 14.25 grams of marijuana, 2.2 grams of the steroids, 0.71 grams of methamphetamine and 13 grams of buprenorphine. The heroin (129 bags), methamphetamine (3 bags) and buprenorphine (3 strips) were found in a black velvet bag on the basement floor next to the crawl space where Gernert was hiding. Police also found digital scales, resealable plastic bags, a box of syringes, glass smoking pipes and multiple rubber bands of various colors.

Trooper Scott Grochowski, Troop L, Reading, vice and narcotics, described the drugs as being “bundled for sale.”

“Ten glassine packages is a bundle, and five bundles is a brick,” Grochowski said. On cross examination, defense attorney Jeff Markosky pointed out that police had not tested the drug packages for DNA or fingerprints.

Schuylkill County District Attorney’s office Detective Troy Greenawald, retired from state police narcotics investigations in 2017, was not present during execution of the search warrant but reviewed the case file. Greenawald said that the typical size of a “dose” or heroin was 0.01 to 0.02 grams, and that using the 0.02 figure, the velvet bag contained 284 single doses, with a street value from $1,400 to $2,800.

“That’s way more heroin than an individual would purchase for personal use,” Greenawald said. Under cross-examination, Markosky asked Greenawald if he had proof of intention to sell drugs, and Greenawald said that the presence of scales and packaging baggies supported that intention.

After halfway house

Gernert testified that he left Adapt because of drug activity at the halfway house. He said he then “bounced around” and wound up at his brother’s house. In the wee hours of the day the search warrant was executed, he and a companion Brenda Sheppo of Saint Clair, went to his brother’s house, where they joined five other people, partying.

“It was basically used as a flop house,” Gernert said of his brother’s house, adding that he stayed on the couch and didn’t use the second-floor bedroom where drugs and his ACCESS card were found. When the parole agent knocked on the door that afternoon, Gernhart said that he and Sheppo went to the basement. As he retreated into the crawl space, Sheppo went back upstairs, he said.

Sheppo, 35, was not available to testify. She died Jan. 29, 2019, in her home.

Assistant District Attorney Andrew J. Serina, during cross-examination, said that the statements Gernert made didn’t make sense.

“You leave the Adapt program to avoid drug use, and it wouldn’t make sense to hang out in a flop house,” Serina said. “It wouldn’t make sense to hang out with a heroin user.”

In his closing argument, Serina told the jury to consider the “big ticket” questions regarding drug possession. Although someone did not directly possess items, possession could be inferred by the person’s ability and intent to control the items – which is called constructive possession. Serina said that Gernert’s version of the events were “nothing more than an attempt to save himself.”

In his closing argument, Markosky said that “obviously Mr. Gernert is no angel, not a choir boy” and again pointed out that the drug packaging was not checked for fingerprints or DNA.

“If those investigations were done, we might not even be here – that part is lacking,” Markosky said.

President Judge William E. Baldwin ordered a presentence investigation, and scheduled sentencing for 9 a.m. July 3.