By Jordan Studer
jstuder@wbcowqel.com
Prison sentences were the obvious trend in the Crawford County Court of Common Pleas on Thursday morning and some of them were longer than others, much longer.
Fifty-two-year-old Richard Brown of Galion admitted to a violation of his probation.
Fifty-two-year-old Richard Brown of Galion admitted to a violation of his probation.
Brown, who is a Tier II sexual offender, was convicted in 2014 of felony two and felony four charges of pandering sexually oriented materials involving a minor. He pleaded guilty then to five of 16 counts with the others being dismissed in the plea arrangement.
Brown’s original sentence was five years of probation after completing the VOA sexual offender treatment program. Due to his violation of probation, his sentence was more severe this time.
Before making the final sentence, Judge Sean Leuthold wanted to make sure Brown clearly understood that his punishment that was about to come was more than deserved.
“Bottom line is… the court takes charges involving pornography and minors extremely seriously and I do believe that a prison sentence is extremely necessary in this case so that we can protect the public from future harm, especially the children,” remarked Leuthold.
The sentencing that was agreed upon was 12 months of prison for each of Brown’s five counts, to be served consecutively. In total, Brown will be serving60 months in prison. Following his prison sentence, five years of post release control will be mandatory.
Brown was not the only one to receive a lengthy prison stay Thursday morning. Twenty-two-year-old Christina Zornes, of Bucyrus, pleaded guilty to the three charges against her. Zornes was charged with felony three tampering with evidence, felony five drug possession, and felony three illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility.
Upon pleading guilty, Zornes was sentenced with three consecutive prison stays. For her first charge, she was sentenced to 24 months. The second charge brought her 11 more months, and her final charge added another 24 months in prison.
In total Zornes is to serve 59 months in prison with jail-time credit. Three years of non-mandatory post-release control was also given to her in addition to a fine of $1,250 for her second count of drug possession.
Twenty-eight-year-old Ronald Pavlus of Bucyrus pleaded guilty to two counts of fifth-degree felony drug possession.
Both of his counts brought along separate prison stays that were to be served consecutively. Both sentences are 11 months in length. The sentence also included three years of non-mandatory post release control as well as a six-month license suspension and $1,250 fee.
Christopher Willis of Grafton pleaded guilty to his charge of felony five possession of drugs. Grafton was sentenced to six months in prison. This prison time was sentenced to be served consecutively to a previous charge he has in Ashland County.
In addition to the prison time, Willis was sentenced with three years of non-mandatory post-release control as well as a fee of $1,250.