TRUMBULL COUNTY Jury convicts man of trying to give inmate illegal drugs
The verdict was reached after jurors deliberated 90 minutes.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- A jury convicted a 46-year-old man of attempting to throw illegal drugs over the barbed wire fence at Trumbull Correctional Institution.
The jury hearing Paul Leroy Brown's case deliberated about 90 minutes Wednesday before convicting him of one count of illegal conveyance of a prohibited item onto the grounds of a detention facility or institution.
Brown, who defended himself during the three-day trial, did not react when the verdict was read.
Sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 12 in the courtroom of Judge Andrew Logan of Trumbull County Common Pleas Court.
Brown, who is being held in the county jail, could receive up to a year in prison.
"This case was put together very well by Vicki Casey of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and Sharon Chilson at TCI," said Chris Becker, an assistant Trumbull County prosecutor who tried the case. "They did a very good job."
Five months after being released from Trumbull Correctional Institution, Brown returned to the prison grounds in January in an attempt to give another inmate illegal drugs, Becker said.
Brown tried to throw cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana over the fence surrounding the prison, Becker said.
Previous imprisonments
Brown had been released from prison in August 2003 after serving 13 years for receiving stolen property.
The charge was filed by Warren police after they investigated the Oct. 12, 1989, strangling death of Brown's cousin Rebecca Sims, 45, of Highland Avenue, Warren.
She was found on her couch, strangled with a telephone cord, and her ring was missing.
Brown was not charged with murder. He was convicted in February 1990 of possessing Sims' ring. Police said he tried to pawn the $892 ring at a local shop.
Brown also was imprisoned from February 1975 to until being paroled in July 1989 after he was convicted in the Dec. 12, 1974, shooting and robbery of Cleveland Beasley, 63, of Palmyra Road Southwest. He had been sentenced to 15 years to life.
sinkovich@vindy.com