BUCYRUS — Wesley Jackson of Crestline appeared in Crawford County Common Pleas Court on Monday to change his plea and receive his sentence.
Jackson, 28, pleaded guilty to one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony punishable with up to 36 months in prison, two counts of possession of drugs — one a fourth-degree felony punishable with up to 18 months in prison and one count a fifth-degree felony punishable with up to 12 months in prison.
In a separate case, Jackson pleaded guilty to one count of endangering children, a third-degree felony punishable with up to 36 months in prison.
In what Judge Sean Leuthold described as small-time drug dealing in crack, Jackson and his fiancé were arrested after a raid in their Crestline home. Present in the home during the drug dealing and raid, was the couple’s 11-month-old son. The infant tested positive for crack. The baby survived and is now in the custody of his grandmother.
“Once again, the victims of the drug epidemic are the children,” Leuthold said. “I have heard your excuses (that) the little guy got the crack by being exposed to it on his mother’s hand is such a dumb excuse it makes me angry.
“Eleven-month-old babies can crawl around, get into things. You have to watch them closely. I’m sure that while you were high on crack and selling it, you didn’t pay much attention to this little boy. You ruin your life if you want to but not an innocent child.”
Leuthold sentenced Jackson to nine months on the tampering with evidence charge, eight months on the fourth-degree possession charge, six months on the fifth-degree felony and 36 months on the child endangering charge for a total of 59 months in prison. He was ordered to have no contact with the child.
In other court action, Robert Gekler, 47, of Galion pleaded guilty to his six charges of operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol, a third-degree felony punishable with up to 36 months in prison.
Before sentencing, Leuthold asked Gekler if he had anything he wanted to say. He apologized to the court and said he intended to work on his alcohol addiction.
“Well I hope you will do better than you’ve done so far. I’ll give you this; you are an equal opportunity offender,” Leuthold said. “You’ve had three convictions in Crawford County, one in Morrow County, one in Lorain and now you’re back here. You’ve got to stop drinking. It’s none of my business if you want to drink yourself to death but when you are out there on the road with the potential to kill innocent people, it’s my job to protect them from you.”
Leuthold sentenced Gekler to the maximum of 36 months in prison. He ordered a lifetime suspension of Gekler’s driver’s license and he must forfeit any license plates he owns.
“If at some point you come out, you will be on my Community Control. Let me tell you right now, we’re very strict in Crawford County,” Leuthold said. “You won’t pull any nonsense here or I’ll send your ass right back to prison.”
Leuthold gave Gekler a report date of July 22 at 7 p.m. for transport to prison.