By Gary Ogle
gogle@wbcowqel.com
A Marion man with an extensive criminal record was sentenced to prison Tuesday record for a Crestline home invasion.
Twenty-three-year-old Toi Pickens pleaded guilty to first-degree felony aggravated robbery and was sentenced to 10 years in prison. As part of the plea agreement with the Crawford County Prosecutors Office, a gun specification that carried an additional three-year sentence was dropped.
Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold, in noting Pickens’ criminal history, said, “This court, nor the people of Crawford County, will not tolerate drug dealing or violence from drug dealing.”
Pickens could have been given to a maximum prison sentence of 11 years plus an additional three years for the gun specification.
Pickens was arrested by Crestline police not long after the home invasion in the early morning hours of Nov. 9 in the 200 block of North Henry Street. Since that time he has been held at the Crawford County jail on a $500,000 bond.
Assistant prosecutor Ryan Hoovler noted that Pickens’ criminal history included a second-degree felony conviction for discharging a weapon in the vicinity of a school, drug trafficking in 2009 and two counts of drug trafficking in 2013. All three of those convictions resulted in prison terms for Pickens.
Pickens was one of 32 people arrested in Marion in 2013 in a large drug investigation and subsequent sting. He was charged with three counts of trafficking in cocaine and released after posting 10-percent of a $7,500 bond. However, Pickens was later arrested trying to cross the border into Canada in violation of his bond.
As part of Tuesday’s conviction in Crawford County Pickens was also fined $2,500 and costs and is subject to a mandatory period of five years of post-release control. Pickens’ felony record also means he cannot legally own or possess firearms.