Two sent to prison for drug-related violations

Judge Sean Leuthold hoped the two people he sentenced to prison Monday would finally be able to end their cycle of addiction.

By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

Judge Sean Leuthold hoped the two people he sentenced to prison Monday would finally be able to end their cycle of addiction.

Drug abuse - Schedule III - V, probation violation Thirty-four-year-old Jessica Rumer, of rural Bucyrus, pleaded guilty to drug possession, a fourth-degree felony, and admitted to violating her community control by possessing heroin. She was sentenced to 15 months in prison for the new felony and six months for the probation violation. The terms will be served consecutively for a total of 21 months. She will receive credit for time served in the county jail.

“She’s had a lot of opportunities to turn her life around,” Leuthold said as he noted she had been “hopelessly caught in the cycle of addiction.”

Leuthold told Rumer that she would have the opportunity to be clean for a few years and reminded her that she would have to follow the law once she returned to the county, otherwise he would have to send her back to prison.

“I don’t want to see that happen,” Leuthold said. “I want to see you succeed.”

Leuthold was finally able to put 31-year-old Ryan Spencer in prison after making that wish in December. The judge placed Spencer on community control in December after the Galion man failed on the intervention program, but was not prison eligible. When Spencer admitted to violating his community control, he became eligible.

Spencer admitted to driving a vehicle while under suspension and refusing to submit to a random drug screen between March 7 and 8.

“I don’t feel bad about sending you to prison,” Leuthold told Spencer. “A grown man gets out of prison, get a job and helps raise his child . . . You can come of that prison as a man or you can come out of that prison as a criminal and a child.”

Leuthold sentenced Spencer to 10 months in prison with credit for time served in the county jail.

Four more people were placed on community control.

Twenty-one-year-old Laura Martinez, of Galion, was the final person sentenced in a 2015 burglary case.

Leuthold sentenced Martinez to five years on community control with 90 days in the county jail, which have already been served.

“I think the agreed-to sentence is fair and justice is met,” commented assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler.

Defense attorney James Mayer III said that though Martinez’s family had been victimized by the crime – it was their home that had been burglarized by Martinez’s boyfriend Jamie Fultz, Fredrick Miller, and Christian Jackson – the family remained supportive, yet disappointed, of Martinez. The young woman was the one who informed Fultz that no one was home.

“I just want to apologize,” Martinez emotionally said to her family. “They didn’t deserve what happened. I could not have had a better family. They have had my back after everything I’ve done to them.”

“In this case, the law would let me send you to prison if I want to,” Leuthold said before questioning Martinez on her role that day. He added that the pre-sentence investigation indicated Martinez had been under duress at the time as Fultz put intensive mental and possibly physical pressure on her.

“You’ve got a lot to lose, Ms. Martinez, because you’d be going to prison for three years if you mess up,” Leuthold said.

Though the sentence included a $2,000 fine, Leuthold waived it under the certainty that the family – also the victims in the case – would end up paying it for her.

Two of Martinez’s co-defendants received prison sentences for their crimes. Fultz received five years in prison for felony 2 burglary and felony 4 carrying concealed weapons. Miller was sentenced to 36 months in prison for burglary and safecracking, both fourth-degree felonies, while Jackson was placed on community control.

Two weeks is all that separated 20-year-old Kaleb Hicks from diversion and community control. Hicks, who pleaded guilty to telecommunications fraud, breaking and entering, and theft Monday, committed the fraud charge on Jan 28. The New Washington man had set up a fundraising page on a website where he wrote a long, sympathetic story to raise money for another, fictional person.

At that point the court intended to place Hicks on the diversion program, but before he could be arraigned he committed breaking and entering and theft offenses at a New Washington garage two weeks later.

“Just by sheer accident he got it done so quickly that we didn’t have him on bond,” Hoovler said.

“We’re talking about a two-week time where he tried to victimize the public and when that didn’t work he victimized a business,” Leuthold said. “You’re off to a rousing start as an adult.”

Leuthold ordered a pre-sentence investigation and continued Hicks’ bond. The recommended sentence included five years on community control and a $750 fine. Hicks could be sentenced to 36 months in prison if he fails on community control.

Nineteen-year-old Blaine Dunlap, of Nevada, said his 45 days in the Wyandot County jail had taken its toll and pleaded with Leuthold to release him on a personal recognizance bond. Dunlap pleaded guilty to selling counterfeit controlled substances, a fifth-degree felony, but still needed to await a pre-sentence investigation before he could be sentenced.

“He has taken incarceration very seriously,” his attorney Brad Starkey said. “It’s taken its toll.”

“Let me tell you what I see,” Leuthold said after hearing from Starkey. “A 19-year-old kid who has got himself immersed in this drug culture. My guess: you have been at this for a while . . . and somehow been able to avoid any real consequences.”

Leuthold informed Dunlap that if he did not enjoy the smaller population of the Wyandot County jail, he certainly would not like prison in Lorain.

“I’m not your parent; I don’t love you. I don’t even like you. I won’t have any problem sending you to prison if you don’t clean your act up,” Leuthold said. “Consequences will be immediate and they’ll be harsh if you don’t straighten up.”

Dunlap’s recommended sentence included three years on community control, a drug and alcohol treatment program, a six-month driver’s license suspension, and a $1,250 fine. Leuthold continued Dunlap’s bond.

Leuthold, who rarely places anyone on the diversion program, planned on doing so for 23-year-old Daniel Hoffman until the rural Bucyrus man decided to harass a police officer while out on bond.

Hoffman was charged with improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle, a fourth-degree felony, but released on a personal recognizance bond in January.

“Mr. Hoffman didn’t mean any particular harm in committing this offense,” Leuthold said of the original crime. He noted, however, that Hoffman’s later foolishness quickly changed Leuthold’s notion to put the man on diversion.

Leuthold said Hoffman thumbed his nose at the criminal justice system when he and a friend harassed a Bucyrus police officer at the Washington Square one night by spotlighting a parked patrol car. Hoffman began recording his and his friend’s interaction with the police officer when he approached the vehicle.

“You can’t do stuff like that, especially when you get yourself in trouble,” Leuthold admonished. “You’re not breaking the law, but you just wanted to jab him . . . I don’t want to waste my time dealing with you when I have to deal with real criminals.”

“That attitude right there is the reason he got community control,” Hoovler added.

“We are reaching our hand out saying we want to help. Don’t slap it away,” Leuthold told Hoffman.

Leuthold ordered a pre-sentence investigation and continued bond. Hoffman’s recommended sentence included five years on community control, though Leuthold said he would consider taking him off probation after eight months.

Twenty-two-year-old Megan Spencer, of Galion, entered a guilty plea to theft and was placed on the prosecutor’s two-year diversion program. As part of the program Spencer will have to pay $12.44 to First Merit Bank.