TRUMBULL COUNTY OxyContin case nets prison time

The judge also fined the defendant $55,000.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A 58-year-old Newton Falls man charged with 11 counts of aggravated possession of drugs has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Judge John Stuard of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court sentenced Terry Axiotis, 58, on Wednesday, moments after Axiotis, who had been free on a $100,000 bond, pleaded guilty.
The judge also fined Axiotis $55,000, but waived the fine because Axiotis is indigent.
Atty. John Fowler, Axiotis' attorney, says his client owns no property and is not employed.
Christopher Becker, an assistant county prosecutor, said Axiotis would go to Dr. Pedro Yap's Newton Falls office and obtain prescriptions for OxyContin for himself and others.
"Mr. Axiotis would then give the prescriptions to people and ask them to have the prescriptions filled," Becker said.
"Mr. Axiotis then paid the people for the prescriptions."
Doctor's role
Dr. Yap, who pleaded guilty in May to 19 counts of drug trafficking, was sentenced in June to three years in prison.
Becker said Yap wrote prescriptions of OxyContin for two patients he saw on a regular basis and for others he had not seen. Becker said the majority of those receiving the prescriptions did not have a medical reason to obtain the addictive painkiller.
Dr. Yap said during his sentencing hearing the patients told him they were in pain and needed the drug.
He said the men also said they had friends and family members who also were in severe pain and needed the medicine.