Man found guilty in Tamaqua incident over drugs

Various testimony painted a grim underworld in Tamaqua, a world where a drug dealer “up for five straight days on meth” encountered a man who was “dope sick,” coming down from heroin and badly in need of a fix.

The dope sick man owed money to the dealer and wouldn’t give it to him, so the dealer shot him in the chest, and shot at him again as he fled.

Joseph Becker, 36, of Summit Hill, survived the shooting, which happened Oct. 10, 2017, around 2 a.m. in the backyard of a West Rowe Street, Tamaqua.

During a trial held Tuesday, a Schuylkill County jury found Rafael Valdez-Torres, 27, of Hazleton, guilty of attempted murder in the first degree, inflicting serious bodily harm during a robbery, criminal attempt to commit robbery and aggravated assault, as well as misdemeanor counts of simple assault, possession of an instrument of crime, possession of a prohibited weapon and reckless endangerment. The jury deliberations lasted about 90 minutes.

District Attorney Michael O’Pake prosecuted the case, while Public Defender Bill Burke represented Valdez-Torres. President Judge William E. Baldwin presided over the case.

The cement of the case was a videotaped confession obtained by Tamaqua Police Chief Henry D. Woods. Less than a week after the shooting, the Tamaqua police department had identified Valdez-Torres, but felt he had fled the area and enlisted the help of the United States Marshals.

U.S. Marshals located Valdez-Torres in Hazleton in January 2018 and brought him to Tamaqua, where Woods placed him under arrest, read him his rights and set up the video for the interview.

That video was played for the jury Tuesday. During the interview, Valdez-Torres said that Becker owed him money and “I got people on my back.”

“I was on meth, up for five days straight,” Valdez-Torres stated on video. “I owed so much people money, I was really losing it.”

At one point during the interview, Woods asks, “Did you shoot him?” and Valdez-Torres answers, “Yes.”

He told Woods he had no idea who now has the gun, but that he gave it to someone who later sold it to Keith J. Schlosser, 36, the tenant on West Rowe Street. Becker had testified that he went to Schlosser’s residence to buy heroin but encountered Valdez-Torres in the backyard.

After the verdict, O’Pake said that the video obtained by Woods was key to the prosecution. The testimony of Becker also bolstered the case, he said.

“He (Becker) acknowledged his shortcomings,” O’Pake said. “He was honest, which made him believable and credible.”

During his closing argument to the jury, O’Pake asked the jurors to “use your common sense and everyday life experiences” to help them decide who was telling the truth.

“He (Becker) was trying to get high on heroin and instead he got a bullet in the chest,” O’Pake said. “I’m not asking you to like Joe Becker — I’m asking you to decide whether he should be shot at point-blank range for refusing to give Torres money.”

Becker is currently incarcerated at SCI-Mahanoy on criminal trespass and theft charges. During his testimony, Becker didn’t sugarcoat his activities on Oct. 10, 2017. He said he had called friends in Lansford, asking them to pick him up and give him a ride. He had meth and a wad of 46 one-dollar bills, which he testified he’d gotten “from a stripper.”

The trio of friends dropped him off behind the Rowe Street house. Becker testified he’d gone to that residence on previous occasions to buy drugs. According to his testimony, he encountered Valdez-Torres in the backyard and used two of the dollar bills, one creased and one rolled, to share a line of the meth with him. Becker testified that although he did owe a drug dealer $300, it wasn’t Valdez-Torres but a man he knew as “Montro.”

When Valdez-Torres pulled a gun from his waistband, Becker asked him to put the gun away. He also said that he told Valdez-Torres that “getting shot is on my bucket list.”

During his testimony, on the bidding of O’Pake, Becker demonstrated how he shaped the dollar bills to give away a line of meth, and later in his testimony, pulled up his shirt to show the scars from his bullet wound and surgery.

After the shooting, Becker was first taken by Tamaqua Ambulance to St. Luke’s Miners Campus in Coaldale, and later flown to St. Luke’s University Hospital Bethlehem Campus, where he was hospitalized for about three weeks.

For the defense, Schlosser testified that he heard Becker and Valdez-Torres arguing in the backyard and that he also saw the two wrestling or scuffling before he heard the gunshot. He said due to prior drug activities, he knew both men.

Burke also pointed out that at the time the two men met in the backyard, Becker was in possession of two knives; a “cricket” folding knife he had in a front pocket and a “necklace” knife, about 3 inches long, in a sheath, that he wore on a necklace.

During his closing argument, Burke said that Becker’s testimony was filled with inconsistencies. He also said that “people carry around knives for reasons.”

A sentencing date has not been set.