Five guilty pleas put two in prison and three on community control

By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com

A Mt. Gilead man didn’t get off easy when he pleaded guilty to drug charges in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Monday afternoon.

Tyler Arnold, 28, pleaded guilty to charges of felony two trafficking in drugs and felony three possession of drugs. He admitted to offering to sell between 50 and 100 unit doses of heroin in the vicinity of a school of juvenile between January 1 and May 1. He also had been in possession of 50 to 100 unit doses of heroin on May 21.

Arnold was sentenced to four years in prison on the felony two charge and three years in prison on the felony three charge. The sentences will be served concurrently for a total of four years. He will be credited for 83 day he has already served.

The mandatory drug fine on count one was waived due to Arnold’s indigent  status and reduced his mandatory drug fine on count two to $2,500. His license was suspended for six months and he must serve a mandatory three years on post release control.

Judge Russell Wiseman ordered Arnold to forfeit drug paraphernalia to the Galion Police Department along with $571 in cash seized at the time of his arrest and a 1999 Plymouth Neon used in the crime.

Joseph Grasley, 32, of Bucyrus, pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property. He admitted to receiving a credit card, which he knew may have stolen, on April 21. The felony five conviction netted Grasley seven months in prison, though he will be credited 111 days for time he has already served. He must also pay a $750 fine as well as $140.11 in restitution to Shell District Petroleum.

Grasley had been convicted in Crawford County before in 2003, where he pleaded guilty to attempted felonious assault, attempted aggravated robbery and felonious assault, and again in 2011 for possession of drugs and obstructing official business.

Thomas Woogerd, 52, of Galion, had two felony charges put on his record Monday afternoon. Woogerd had been placed on intervention in lieu of conviction for a drug possession charge stemming from 2009 but he violated his intervention recently. He admitted to being charged with a first-degree misdemeanor by the Galion Police Department in May, failure to submit to a urine test, failure to notify his change of address, and failure to report to his monthly office visit. Wiseman removed Woogerd from intervention and accepted his 2009 guilty plea. The Galion man was placed on community control for three years.

Woogerd also pleaded guilty to a felony four theft charge. He admitted to taking over $1,000 from an elderly woman between January 1 and May 31, 2013.

Woogerd was placed on three years of community control, which will be served at the same time as the 2009 case, and was ordered to enter into an in-patient drug treatment program at CROSSWAEH in Tiffin. He must also pay $750 in restitution and have no contact with the victim.

Twenty-five-year-old Kyle Baldwin, of Libertyville, Illinois, pleaded guilty to a felony five drug possession charge in Common Pleas Court Monday. The charge had been amended from a felony four charge.

Baldwin admitted to possessing heroin on May 18, 2011.

He was placed on community control for three years and ordered to successfully complete an alcohol and drug assessment program and any follow-up treatment. He must pay a mandatory drug fine of $1,250 and forfeit drug paraphernalia to the Bucyrus Police Department. His license was also suspended for six months. Baldwin may have his smartphone returned to him if he is able to prove ownership.

Though Randy Bowman tried to do the right thing in Seneca County, his oversight got him in even more trouble in Crawford County. Bowman, who celebrated his 30th birthday in Crawford County Common Pleas Court Monday, pleaded guilty to his felony four charge for failure to register.

Bowman told Wiseman that he turned himself into authorities in Tiffin for child support and while he was incarcerated there, he forgot to inform the proper authorities in Crawford County of his change of address after returning from Laredo, Mexico. Bowman had been convicted in Indiana of a sexually oriented offense and was required to provide his local sheriff written notification of his change of address. He failed to do so on April 23.

Bowman, who currently resides in Mt. Vernon, was placed on community control for three years and ordered to pay a $750 fine and any supervision costs.