Burton previously convicted of drug dealing
NORRISTOWN » The man on trial for delivering a fatal dose of fentanyl to a Pottstown woman is no stranger to law enforcement and previously spent a stint in prison for selling crack cocaine in the borough.
In March 2012, Harold Robert Burton, then 32 and of the 400 block of Spruce Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to four to eight years in a state correctional facility after he pleaded guilty to multiple charges of possession with intent to deliver cocaine in connection with five separate incidents that occurred between October 2009 and September 2010.
That sentence was imposed as part of a plea agreement, court records indicated.
At that time, the judge said Burton was eligible for the state Department of Corrections’ Recidivism Risk Reduction Incentive program, which allows drug offenders to reduce their minimum prison stays if they participate in treatment programs and maintain good conduct records in prison. Prisoners can be released upon completing the program only if officials are satisfied that the offenders pose no risks to public safety.
According to court records, Burton was released from state prison on Sept. 21, 2014, after receiving credit for all the time he spent in prison after his September 2010 arrest and while he was awaiting court action on the charges.
Less than two years after his release, on June 21, 2016, Burton was charged with drug delivery resulting in death and possession with intent to deliver fentanyl in connection with the Jan. 29, 2016, overdose death of Renee Winslow of Pottstown. Burton’s trial on the most recent charges is playing out in county court this week and a jury was deliberating Burton’s fate on Friday night.
The current jury was not permitted to know about Burton’s previous drug dealing conviction.
In the previous case, an investigation of Burton began in October 2009 when Burton sold an amount of cocaine to another person in the borough while police were conducting a sting operation, according to court papers.
In the month of August 2010, according to a criminal complaint, Burton, on two occasions, met with confidential informants working with police and sold the informants crack cocaine. The drug transactions were observed by police, who had the meeting spots under surveillance, according to the arrest affidavits.
In September 2010, Burton once again met with an undercover police informant and sold that informant an amount of crack cocaine during a meeting at a borough location, according to the criminal complaint. That transaction also was observed by police, court papers indicate.
Finally, on Sept. 20, 2010, during a traffic stop on Chestnut Street, borough police took Burton, who was a passenger in the stopped vehicle, into custody on active warrants, according to court papers. When police searched Burton they found him possessing two cell phones, one of which was determined to have previously been used during a drug transaction linked to Burton, according to the arrest affidavit.
A further search of Burton’s person revealed he was in possession of 13 individually packaged bags of small amounts of crack cocaine, according to the criminal complaint.