Pittsburgh man gets 31 years in federal prison for heroin trafficking

A Pittsburgh man who served as the “right-hand man” for a large-scale heroin trafficker convicted of killing a potential witness against him will serve 31 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Mark R. Hornak sentenced James Perrin, 44, on Monday.

Perrin has already been incarcerated for seven years on the federal charges.

He was found guilty by a jury in November 2018 of conspiracy to distribute heroin; possession with intent to distribute heroin; possession of a firearm by a convicted felon and possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

“Perrin’s crimes enabled his partner in the drug trafficking business to take the life of another,” the government wrote in its sentencing filing. “The real consequences of Perrin’s recidivism cannot be overlooked.”

Perrin was charged, along with Price Montgomery, with trafficking heroin in 2013 and 2014.

According to the government, a wiretap revealed that the men were often together, and Perrin ran errands for Montgomery, including wiring money to relatives and going to New Jersey with him to get heroin to bring back to Pittsburgh.

Investigators conducting surveillance on the men in June 2014, saw them return from New Jersey with a suitcase and backpack. On June 8, 2014, officers conducted a traffic stop and found 125 bricks of heroin.

A search warrant at Montgomery’s residence on Mount Washington netted another 1,500 bricks of heroin, 16 firearms and $31,000 in cash, prosecutors said. They wrote that Perrin also assisted Montgomery in buying stolen guns and ammunition off the street.

Then, on Aug. 22, 2014, Tina Crawford, who had a meeting planned an hour later with the U.S. Attorney’s office to potentially cooperate in an investigation of Montgomery and Perrin, was shot to death in the garage of her mother’s home in the Hill District.

Montgomery was one of the shooters, the government said.

Under federal law, Perrin is a career offender, and his sentencing guidelines called for an advisory prison term of 35 years.

In arguing for such a sentence, the U.S. attorney’s office said that Perrin’s actions not only endangered the lives of others who bought heroin from them, but led to Crawford’s death.

“This is not a hypothetical argument—here, Perrin obtained firearms in furtherance of his and Montgomery’s drug trafficking business, and Montgomery killed their business partner, drug courier Tina Crawford, whom the defendants suspected of cooperating in the federal investigation against them,” the government said. “The seriousness of Perrin’s crimes cannot be overstated.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Perrin had been trafficking drugs since the age of 17. They wrote in a sentencing brief that he has no respect for the law in that he previously has fled from custody; committed new crimes while on supervision; and pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2004 in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court.

The defense argued that Perrin was raised without any positive male influences in his life and was often in trouble as a child, spending significant time in juvenile detention facilities.

Prior to his current incarceration, Perrin spent another nine years of his adult life in prison, as well.

The defense asked the court for a sentence of 15 years in prison, arguing that a guideline sentence means that Perrin would not be release from prison until his 70s.

It would be “tantamount to a death sentence,” they wrote.