Domonique Taylor: Suspect In Huge Fentanyl Seizure Pleads Not Guilty
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- Seven hundred thousand stamp bags of Fentanyl, more than a half million dollars in cash, a small arsenal of weapons and several confiscated luxury cars and motorcycles.
At his preliminary hearing Tuesday, Domonique Taylor was summoned to explain it all.
But he had nothing to say when KDKA-TV asked him outside the courthouse if the seized drugs and the cash were his.
"He's not a violent individual," said his attorney, Phil DiLucente. "This is a family man. He owned businesses. Our position right now is he's a businessman. A businessman who is a landlord, who sold cars."
(Story continues below the tweet)
NEW: A Braddock man accused of possessing $1.4 million worth of Fentanyl appeared before a judge this morning. Domonique Taylor plead Not Guilty. KDKA Investigator @AndySheehankdka talked with Taylor's attorney about the charges. 5pm on @KDKA https://t.co/3R0UwmzJAg pic.twitter.com/MLG7yrCM60
— Ian Smith (@ismithKDKA) March 22, 2022
Taylor pleaded not guilty, and DiLucente began trying to undermine the mountain of evidence against his client, arguing the confiscated cars were for sale, and the cash is from rental properties and a landscaping business. As for the drugs, he said they were found in a garage, but it's not clear they belonged to Taylor.
"My understanding is those 14 kilos were found in the garbage area where multiple people would have had access to it," DiLucente said.
Still, prosecutors were undeterred. And last week, Attorney General Josh Shapiro said he would prosecute Taylor to the fullest extent of the law for dealing in the lethal drug Fentanyl.
"We know we saved lives," Shapiro said. "We took a dangerous criminal off our streets."
And over the objections of DiLucente, District Justice Scott Schricker held Taylor for trial and sent him back to the county jail without bond.
"Because of such a large quantity of Fentanyl and the half million dollars of cash, he was determined by the judge to be potential a flight risk," DiLucente said. "The judge makes that decision, not his attorney."