MOM, DAD BUSTED
WITH 4 YOUNG KIDS IN HOUSE, FOLCROFT COUPLE FACE CHARGES
FOLCROFT » Four children between the ages of 11 and 6 reside in a house that authorities raided Wednesday, resulting in the confiscation of marijuana and suspected heroin and the arrest of their parents on drug delivery and related offenses, according to the borough’s top law enforcement officer.
“What a way to live,” Police Chief Robert Ruskowski said in announcing the arrests of Terrell D. Howell, 33, and Christine Lightford, 30, both of the 700 block of Grant Road. Howell was additionally charged with possession of a prohibited firearm, according to online court records.
According to Ruskowski, one of four firearms recovered in the family home was found on top of a computer, “in easy reach” of the children. That specific firearm was not loaded at the time.
It was shortly after 6 a.m. Wednesday when members of the Folcroft Police Department and the Delaware County Drug Task Force executed a search warrant at the couple’s residence on Grant Road, according to details provided in the probable cause affidavit, written by Folcroft Officer Thomas P. Kesser.
The home search was precipitated by an investigation that began when a Folcroft officer was contacted by a confidential informant identified in documents only as CI1, an individual who provided information to the officer in the past that resulted with seven drug seizures, two arrests and one conviction. Another case is still pending.
“CI1 wishes that his/her identity remain anonymous for fear of bodily harm and/ or injury should his/her identity become known,” according to the search warrant application. In April, the search warrant application states, CI1 told the officer that a person known as “Trizz” was dealing marijuana out of his Grant Road residence. Whenever CI1 wants to purchase marijuana, CI1 allegedly contacts “Trizz,” places an order and then completes the deal at the Grant Road address.
“CI1 has purchased what CI1 knows from experience to be marijuana from ‘Trizz’ on numerous occasions in the past,” the application states.
Within the first week of May, the officer met with CI1 for the purpose of making a controlled purchase from the Grant Road residence. Working with the officer, CI1 contacted “Trizz.” As the transaction played out, the officer had the residence under surveillance.
“(The officer) observed CI1 approach the front door … then observed a black male open the front door and make a hand-to-hand exchange with CI1,” the document states. Afterward, CI1 gave the officer a quantity of greenish-brown vegetable matter he had just purchased. The material subsequently field-tested positive for marijuana.
As the investigation progressed, “Trizz” was positively identified as Howell.
During the third week of May, the officer met again with CI1 and set up another controlled buy at the Grant Road residence. Again, CI1 contacted Trizz and again, a scenario similar to the one in April played out. A third controlled buy was set up within 48 hours of the application for a warrant to search the Grant Road residence.
When investigators arrived at the house Wednesday morning, Howell was in the living room and Lightford was in a front upstairs bedroom. With Lightford were the four children, according to the affidavit.
Investigators conducted a full search of the premises.
The affidavit includes a long list of items recovered from the house.
• Recovered from a shoe box under an end table in the living room was a glass mason jar containing marijuana; seven sandwich bags containing marijuana; a baggie with marijuana leaves; 12 baggies with blue wax paper stamped PS4 containing suspected heroin; four zip baggies with blue wax paper stamped Suicide Squad containing suspected heroin; two pink containers, one of which contained an off-white, rock-like substance; two metal grinders containing a greenishbrown vegetable matter residue; five packages of new and unused Apple zip baggies; three packages of Apple zip baggies with money signs; and vacuum sealed packaging material containing greenish-brown vegetable matter residue.
• Recovered from a coffee table in the living room was a partially smoked blunt containing greenish-brown vegetable matter.
• Recovered from a pair of shorts that Howell said belonged to him, was a sandwich bag containing a greenish-brown vegetable matter, $79, and Howell’s driver’s license.
• Recovered from next to an entertainment center was a scale with greenishbrown vegetable matter residue; two glass vials; three rectangular containers with greenish- brown vegetable matter residue; and mail for both Howell and Lightford with the Grant Road address.
• Recovered from the front upstairs bedroom was a Cobra firearm, a .380 caliber Taurus firearm with one magazine, a box of .380 ammunition and a Pennsylvania license to carry a firearm in Lightford’s name. • Recovered from the
basement was a tan Cobra firearm, a magazine containing seven .380 bullets and a Harrington and Richardson Arms long revolver
with an unreadable serial number.
Howell and Lightford were taken into immediate custody, according to the affidavit.
According to Ruskowski, the four children were placed in the care of a relative.
Additional charges filed against both Howell and Lightford
include three counts of possession of a controlled substance, four counts of use or possession of drug paraphernalia and four counts of recklessly endangering another person.
Both Howell and Lightford were remanded to the county prison following a preliminary arraignment
Wednesday afternoon, during which Magisterial District Judge Steven A. Sandone set bail at 10 percent of $50,000 each. Lightford’s bail was posted on June 15, while Howell remained incarcerated, according online court records.
Preliminary hearings are listed
for June 29 before Magisterial District Judge Nicholas S. Lippincott. Located in Upper Providence, Lippincott’s court is designated for the majority of countywide drug cases.
Neither Howell nor Lightford formally retained an attorney as of press time Thursday.