YOUNGSTOWN Guilty plea entered in cough-syrup case

The seven-month sentence will be served after she finishes doing time in Trumbull County Jail.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city woman who brought stolen prescription cough syrup here from the West Coast was sentenced to prison Monday.
Khaliah Janae Green, 26, of Idlewood Avenue, pleaded guilty in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to possession of Tussionex, a fourth-degree felony.
In exchange for the plea, assistant prosecutor Dennis Sarisky recommended a seven-month prison sentence, which was approved by Judge James C. Evans. The sentence will begin immediately after Green finishes a stint in the Trumbull County Jail, where she is serving time for an unrelated charge of drug abuse. She is scheduled to be released in February.
A charge of carrying a concealed weapon, also unrelated to the drug charge, was dismissed as part of Green's plea agreement with the prosecutor's office.
What happened
Green and Tameika Fields, 28, of Crandall Avenue, were indicted by a county grand jury in September 2001 on felony charges of Tussionex possession. Authorities caught them at the WRTA bus station downtown with two bags full of the medicine.
Tussionex is a highly potent cough syrup that contains the same active ingredient as Vicodin and other depressants, and its effect is similar to heroin.
Authorities say the liquid sells on the streets for between $125 and $150 an ounce.
Sarisky said it is often used by young people, who mix it with orange juice or drink it with a six-pack of beer.
Green and Fields got the cough syrup in Los Angeles, where it had been stolen from a pharmacy, Sarisky said. Green was living in California at the time, said her attorney, James C. Dunn.
The women flew back to this area and were riding a WRTA bus back into Youngstown when the driver overheard them talking about drug transactions. The driver alerted local authorities, who apprehended the women when they got off the bus downtown. They were carrying between 165 and 200 ounces of the liquid in two bags.
Fields was scheduled to plead guilty Nov. 26 but did not show up. Judge Evans issued a warrant for her arrest, but she has not yet been located.
bjackson@vindy.com