By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
The lengthy prison sentences handed down earlier this week did not ease up Thursday for a Galion woman involved in a meth lab bust.
Twenty-four-year-old Korinthia Wireman pleaded guilty to an amended charge of illegal assembly or possession of chemicals to manufacture drugs, a third-degree felony, and drug possession, a fifth-degree felony.
Crawford County Common Pleas Court Judge Sean Leuthold sentenced Wireman to 36 months in prison for the felony 3 and 12 months on the felony 5. They will be served consecutively for a 48-month prison sentence. Wireman must also pay a $5,000 mandatory drug fine and forfeit drug-related property to the Galion Police Department. Her driver’s license was also suspended for six months. Charges of the illegal manufacture of drugs, a first-degree felony, and possession of drug abuse instruments, a second-degree misdemeanor, were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
“Once again, methamphetamine has raised its ugly head,” Leuthold said.
Wireman and her co-defendant, Dustin Lowe, were arrested on April 13 after Galion police received a complaint of a possible mobile meth lab at 675 Dawsett Ave. According to the police report, a search warrant revealed evidence indicating the manufacturing of methamphetamine in the garage using the “shake and bake” method.
Despite the fact that he knew Wireman became involved because of someone she knew, Leuthold held her responsible for using heroin and meth, and even creating the stimulant drug.
“You can’t live this way. (If) you’re going to pull this stuff in Crawford County, you’re going to prison,” he said. “I don’t feel bad about sending you to prison.”
Instead, Leuthold believed it was the only way to save her if she continued to use both drugs at the same time, saying she was “just a small step from the grave,” otherwise.
Lowe is still facing two charges of felony 5 drug possession and a second-degree misdemeanor for possession of drug abuse instruments.
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Twenty-six-year-old John Kenny, of Bucyrus, was granted judicial release after serving just over 60 days on his 36-month prison sentence.
“If you act like you need to go back to prison, I will oblige you,” Leuthold warned Kenny as the judge placed him on five years of community control.
Kenny originally pleaded guilty to a bill of information on two counts of aggravated assault in 2013, claiming at the time that he could not remember assaulting a woman at a party that summer. He was given community control at the time, but violated it earlier this year when he caused physical harm to his live-in girlfriend and tested positive for marijuana. Leuthold sentenced him to 18 months on each count in March.
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