The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

March 17, 2013

Man’s cocaine sentence to follow term for assault

By Joe Pinchot Herald Staff Writer

FARRELL — A former Farrell man was sentenced this week to 6 1/2 years on a federal drug charge - a sentence he will serve after he completes a state sentence for sexually assaulting a woman.

Raymond A. Napolitan, 50, was found guilty by a jury in September of possessing nearly 2 pounds of cocaine with intent to deliver.

Prosecutors had asked for a sentence of 10 years, 1 month to 12 years, 7 months, calling Napolitan “a violent drug dealer, who not only refuses to take responsibility for his actions, but also refuses to avail himself of any treatment in order to make himself less violent upon his release from prison.”

Napolitan asked for the 5-year mandatory minimum sentence, arguing he’s already spent a “substantial period of time in custody,” and knew he faced a “lengthy incarceration,” making it “unlikely” that he would get in trouble with the law again.

U.S. District Court Judge Arthur J. Schwab, Pittsburgh, on Thursday refused to impose two sentence enhancements, which would have knocked sentence guidelines into the realm proposed by prosecutors, but also sentenced Napolitan beyond the mandatory minimum. He made the federal sentence consecutive to the state sentence, and ordered that Napolitan serve 5 years of supervised release after he gets out of federal prison.

The federal case stemmed from a June 29, 2007, search of Napolitan’s former home in the 200 block of Hamilton Avenue, Farrell.

Federal prosecutors said Southwest Mercer County Regional police were called after a friend of the victim’s reported to 911 that she had received text messages from the victim saying Napolitan had not let the woman leave home for four days.

Three policemen responded to Napolitan’s home and found his white pickup sitting in front of it, but got no answer to their knocks on the door, prosecutors said.

Police called the friend and got contact information for the victim, then called her. She told police she was alone and OK. Police asked her to return home, and she complied, prosecutors said.

The victim sounded “nervous and upset” on the phone, and started to cry when she talked to police face to face, prosecutors said. She told police Napolitan was not there, but said he had not let her leave for the past four days and had threatened her with a gun.

The victim told police they could go inside the house to look for Napolitan, prosecutors said.

 Police entered the home and did not find Napolitan, but found a gun, sandwich bags, some with white powder residue in them, and a digital scale with white residue on it, prosecutors said.

Police obtained a search warrant and ultimately seized nearly two pounds of cocaine; about 6è ounces of benzocaine, an anesthetic that sometimes is added to cocaine or can be abused in its own right; $9,325; three digital scales; and 21 guns.

Napolitan is serving a state prison sentence of 5 1/2 to 11 years for sexually assaulting a woman June 24, 2007, at the Hamilton home, and chasing her Sept. 22, 2007, through the streets of Sharon.

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