Jeannette inmate gets more time for trying to smuggle drugs into Westmoreland jail

A Jeannette man will serve up to 23 months in jail for an attempt last year to smuggle drugs into the Westmoreland County Prison.

Adam Brandonio, 46, pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiracy, drug counts and other offenses in connection with an incident police described as a sting operation at a magisterial district court in Jeannette last year that resulted in the arrest of both him and a woman prosecutors said is his wife.

According to court records, jail staff alerted sheriff deputies to a plot that was to be carried out by Brandonio and his wife in which she was to plant drugs in a bathroom at the district court office the same day he was to appear there for a preliminary hearing.

Brandonio had been confined to the jail on numerous shoplifting counts and appeared before District Judge Joseph DeMarchis on Aug. 1, 2019, when investigators found a blue glove in the bathroom that contained Suboxone strips, pills and tobacco wedged behind the toilet tank.

Sheriff deputies stuffed paper into an identical glove and found it in Brandonio’s possession after he was allowed to use the bathroom prior to his hearing, police said.

“His position was he thought it was tobacco not drugs. He thought he was smuggling in tobacco,” said defense attorney Tim Dawson.

Westmoreland County Judge Meagan Bilik-DeFazio imposed terms of a negotiated plea bargain in which Brandonio was sentenced to serve nine to 23 months in jail and an additional four years on probation. He was not given credit for the 15 months he served since his arrest last summer. The judge also ordered Brandonio ineligible to have his sentenced reduced for good behavior.

Assistant District Attorney Adam Barr said prosecutors originally pitched a plea deal that called for Brandonio to serve three to seven years in prison. That offer was amended Tuesday to ensure Brandonio serve at least two years behind bars and resolved all 16 pending cases he faced without a trial, Barr said.

Brandonio also pleaded guilty to numerous counts in 15 other cases, including 14 incidents in which he was charged with retail theft for stealing merchandise from Walmart stores in Hempfield and North Huntingdon and a Target store in Hempfield. He received multiple sentences that will run concurrent with the drug case.

Barr said Maria Harshey, 44, of Jeannette is Brandonio’s wife and is awaiting trial on nine counts in connection with the smuggling plot. She is free after posting $15,000 bond last year and her trial is tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 21.