A New York man federal investigators said was a heroin supplier to a drug gang based on Pittsburgh’s South Side pleaded guilty Friday to leading police on a high-speed chase two years ago on Route 22 through Salem.
Holiday L. Vaughn, 36, formerly the Bronx, was sentenced to serve up to 23 months in jail. The plea deal saw him immediately turned over to federal authorities to continue serving a 12-year prison sentence for supplying heroin distributed by a Pittsburgh drug gang.
Police said Vaughn on May 29, 2019, sped away as authorities attempted to stop his vehicle on Route 22 east of New Alexandria. He led troopers on a nearly five-mile, high-speed pursuit, at times exceeding 100 mph. Vaughn’s 2016 black Mercedes Benz crashed into another motorist before coming to a halt in a grassy area near Hornock Drive, police said.
According to court records, police found 1,170 stamp bags of heroin in his car.
In court Friday, Vaughn pleaded guilty to one felony count of fleeing from police. Westmoreland County Common Pleas Court Judge Scott Mears sentenced him to serve a 3 to 23 months in jail. He was paroled after he received credit for time he served in the county prison since Nov. 13.
Two charges each of aggravated assault and reckless endangerment as well as two drug counts were dismissed. Prosecutors said the plea bargain and mitigated sentence was part of an overall agreement to resolve both the state and federal charges. As a condition of the state sentence, this week Vaughn made a $1,480 restitution payment that will forwarded to the woman whose car he struck during the chase.
Vaughn last May pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh two federal drug counts filed as part of an FBI wiretap investigation that resulted in charges filed against 37 people in three states indicted for participating in a major drug trafficking organization identified as Darccide/Smash 44 (DS44) based in Pittsburgh from January 2018 through June 2019.
All but two of those charged were from western Pennsylvania.
