Judge finds teen delinquent on drug charge

Witnesses said they saw the drug sale in a Spanish class.

NEW CASTLE, Pa. — A Lawrence County Common Pleas judge has found a teenager delinquent on a drug charge.

Judge John W. Hodge found Joshua Stewart, 17, of Wallace Avenue delinquent of possession with intent to deliver a drug after a hearing March 25. Juveniles are not found guilty of crimes. They are adjudicated as delinquent. He will be sentenced later.

At the March hearing, which was the equivalent of a trial in an adult court, two witnesses testified they saw and heard Stewart sell 13 pills to a girl who was hospitalized that same day, Feb. 27, 2007, because of taking the drug oxycodone.

Erica Jo Million, 16, died of complications from the drug March 4, 2007.

The witnesses, two students at New Castle High School, testified they saw Stewart sell pills to Million in a Spanish class there before lunch. “Here’s 13 for $18,” Stewart said as he gave Million small white pills, one of the witnesses testified.

That afternoon, Million fell unconscious in a math class and was taken out of school by an ambulance.

Stewart was not charged with providing the oxycodone that killed Million.

Police found 13 oxycodone tablets still in the girl’s purse after she was hospitalized, court testimony showed, so prosecutors couldn’t link those pills with her death.

District Attorney John Bongivengo also said that in order to be convicted of delivery of a drug that results in death, there has to be proof of malice.

“There was no evidence of that,” he said.

Stewart’s attorney, David Acker, said he would not comment on the judge’s decision.

Acker said that juvenile laws require a judge’s order to release information.

Judge Hodge issued an order Thursday to release information that includes the adjudication of the case, but Acker said Friday he had not seen it.

Judge Hodge made Stewart’s hearing and the decision public because Pennsylvania law calls for disclosure when a juvenile is 14 or older and the offense would be considered a felony if committed by an adult.