HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona man has entered a no-contest plea to a charge of drug delivery resulting in death and guilty pleas to additional drug-related offenses for a state sentence of five- to 13-years’ incarceration.

Jameek “Meisty” Blocken, 41, an inmate at the Blair County Prison since his May 1 arrest, entered the pleas Thursday before President Judge Wade A. Kagarise during a review of pending criminal cases.

District Attorney Pete Weeks and public defender John Siford presented Kagarise with the negotiated plea to address Blocken’s charges in three criminal cases.

By pleading no contest to drug delivery resulting in death, Blocken did not admit guilt in causing the July 21, 2023, death of Samantha Preusser, 39, Altoona. But he acknowledged that evidence was sufficient to result in a conviction.

At the time of his May 1 arrest, Blocken was wanted on a felony warrant in connection with Preusser’s death at her residence on the 100 block of Ninth Street.

Through an investigation, police learned that Lindsey Jo Wood, 38, Altoona, had acquired a half ball of cocaine for Preusser after contacting a man she knew by the name of “Meisty.”

Charges indicate that police were familiar with “Meisty,” a name Blocken used in the past in connection with selling cocaine, heroin and marijuana. Police also found various drugs and drug paraphernalia in Preusser’s residence.

The day before Blocken’s arrest, police received a tip as to his whereabouts and based on that tip, set up surveillance and surrounded a residence on the 1400 block of 18th Avenue.

When Blocken attempted to flee via the back door of the residence, officers chased him down and tackled him in the middle of 16th Street.

After securing a search warrant for the residence, police recovered $2,700 in cash, crack cocaine, drug paraphernalia, ecstasy, marijuana, packaging materials and scales.

Kagarise assigned the negotiated sentence of five- to 13-years’ incarceration to Blocken’s first-degree felony offense of drug delivery resulting in death.

In keeping with the negotiated plea, the judge added no additional time for Blocken’s guilty pleas to related offenses of delivery of controlled substance, criminal conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance, criminal use of a communications facility and recklessly endangering another person, escape, resisting arrest, delivery of a controlled substance and tampering with evidence.

Court records show that Altoona police also arrested Wood in October 2023 and charged her with drug delivery resulting in Preusser’s death, along with additional drug-selling offenses, all of which are still pending. Wood was in the county prison for about a year, then released on unsecured bail as of Oct. 22. Her criminal cases are scheduled for review in court on Jan. 28.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay

Stephens is at 814-946-7456.