YOUNGSTOWN Couple sentenced on drug convictions

The husband is going to prison. The wife was placed on probation.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- An Elm Street couple was sentenced for what authorities say was their role in providing drugs in the Westlake Terrace housing project.
Lester Scott, 42, was sentenced Tuesday to three years in prison by Judge Robert Lisotto of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. His wife, 39-year-old Shauna Berry Scott, was placed on probation for one year.
Shauna Scott also was ordered to serve seven days in the county jail for an unrelated charge of perjury. She will report to jail in August.
The Scotts were found guilty in April after pleading no contest to multiple counts of trafficking in crack cocaine, possession of crack cocaine and drug possession.
Their sentencing was delayed while a background check was done.
Atty. Robert J. Rohrbaugh II, who represented Shauna Scott, said she was accused of dealing in lower amounts of drugs than her husband, so probation was appropriate for her.
Lester Scott's sentence was mandatory under Ohio law.
Rohrbaugh also said there was no physical evidence that Shauna Scott was a drug dealer.
"There was not one witness who could come forward and say that Shauna Scott sold him drugs," Rohrbaugh said. "It is all a matter of circumstantial evidence."
Notorious dealer
Assistant prosecutor Robert Duffrin said Lester Scott was once considered one of the area's most notorious drug dealers. He lost some steam, though, when he went to prison in 1999 for a drug conviction.
That conviction was eventually overturned on appeal and Scott was released from prison before being arrested on the current charges.
"He's got no other business than selling drugs," Duffrin said. "He's still considered a major dealer, but he's no longer a kingpin."
Shauna Scott was considered the "brains" of the drug operation, while her husband was the "muscle," protecting her and their "turf" from rival drug dealers and other threats, according to authorities.
"As a drug dealer, you're dealing with illegal activity and you are not afforded police protection," Duffrin said. "You have to watch out for yourself."
The Scotts were arrested in October 2001 when Youngstown police and agents from the Mahoning Valley Drug Task Force raided their North Side home.
They found packets of crack cocaine in the top of a bottled water dispenser, in a videocassette tape case and in Shauna Scott's bra.
bjackson@vindy.com