YOUNGSTOWN Judge sentences woman in illegal cough-syrup case

Another woman already had pleaded guilty and been sentenced to prison.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A city woman was sentenced to a year in prison Tuesday for bringing illegal cough syrup here from California.
Tameika Fields, 28, of Crandall Avenue, had pleaded guilty in February in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to one count of attempted possession of Tussionex, a cough medicine. Judge James C. Evans ordered a background check on her before she was sentenced.
Judge Evans ordered Fields to pay $1,200 court costs and imposed a $500 fine, which he then suspended.
The cough medicine 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 said.
Authorities have said the cough syrup was stolen from a pharmacy in Los Angeles, and was brought back here by Fields and another woman, 26-year-old Khaliah Janae Green of Englewood, Calif., for sale to area teens who use it to get high.
Green also pleaded guilty to attempted possession of Tussionex and was sentenced seven months in prison earlier this year.
Alerted by bus driver
The women flew to this area from California and were riding a Western Reserve Transit Authority bus to Youngstown when a bus driver overheard them talking about drug transactions.
The driver alerted local authorities, who apprehended the women when they got off the bus at the bus station downtown. They were carrying between 165 and 200 ounces of the liquid in two bags.
Prosecutors have said that Tussionex is sold on the streets for between $125 and $150 an ounce. It is mostly used by young people, who often mix it with orange juice.
Fields also was sentenced to a year in prison for an unrelated charge of burglary, to which she had pleaded guilty. Judge Evans ordered that the prison terms be served at the same time, and gave Fields credit for 138 days she's already served in the county jail awaiting trial and sentencing.
bjackson@vindy.com