Two Richland Residents to Stand Trial on Drug Charges

Magisterial District Judge William K. Wagner ordered two Richland Township residents Wednesday to stand trial on multiple drug charges.

Megan Kifer and her boyfriend, Ernest Nicholas, both 35 and of the same address on Route 910/Gibsonia Road, are charged with two felony counts each of possessing hashish and marijuana with the intent to distribute it, according to the criminal complaint.

Each also faces a felony count of criminal conspiracy and a misdemeanor count of possessing drug paraphernalia, the complaint states. 

Originally they were charged with 12 counts of possessing controlled substances, but seven of those counts were dropped because the couple have prescriptions for some of the drugs.

They are charged with possessing hashish, marijuana, MDMA (Ecstasy), lysergic acid diethylamine (LSD) and psilocybin mushrooms.

Three more possession counts were added Wednesday after lab results further defined the types of drugs found, according to court testimony.

Kifer and Nicholas were charged after a Hampton police detective went to their home in July to serve a felony drug arrest warrant on 26-year-old Jason Zunic of Allison Park after receiving a tip that he was at the house.

also were called in. 

As Det. Robert Grondwalski walked through the house on Gibsonia Road to get to Zunic, who was hiding upstairs, he saw three open boxes of plastic sandwich bags and what he suspected to be marijuana on the dining room table, according to the criminal complaint.

The detective, who has more than seven years of narcotics experience with Hampton and the District Attorney's Narcotics Enforcement Team, smelled marijuana in the house, the complaint states.

In the living room, he saw drug paraphernalia — smoking devices, pill grinders, a toot straw and a plate with white powder residue — on an end table, according to the complaint.

When he told resident Megan Kifer what he had observed, she took the detective to the dining room, opened a large plastic storage container and retrieved a large Ziploc bag of suspected marijuana and a digital scale, the complaint states.

The criminal complaint contains a long list of items found at the house that includes two "weed" grinders, six glass smoking devices, a roach clip, an electric pill grinder, a second digital scale, $100 in cash, two vaporizers, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .380 Sig pistol, LSD blotter papers, an "owe" notebook and about a dozen different types of pills and capsules.

Upon defense attorney Komron Jon Maknoon's questioning Wednesday, the detective noted that both guns were in boxes and that he did not find ammunition in the home.

Makroon alluded to the couple's personal use of the drugs.

"No question, they're users," he said.

Grondwalski said people who possess marijuana for personal use usually don't have digital scales, boxes of baggies or loose marijuana spread on a table. He also testified that he had never come across the couple previously in his drug investigations.

"These people have never been a problem in the community," he said.

Assistant District Attorney Michael Ball argued that considering the substantial amount of drugs and the way the marijuana was laid out, "it appears it was more than for personal use."

The judge agreed and held the cases for court. Kifer's and Nicholas's formal arraignments are set for April 25 in the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas.