Convicted drug trafficker charged with possession

The defendant was wanted on two old warrants.

YOUNGSTOWN — A convicted drug trafficker who had his 16-month prison term commuted after three months was arrested after police found several bags of marijuana in his car.

Officers sent to check out a report of a woman on the ground near Southern Boulevard and Boston Avenue around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday saw tracks in the snow and a large area of disturbed snow, but no woman. They then spotted a car backed into a driveway with its engine running.

After smelling the strong odor of burning marijuana, police found a large bag of marijuana in the vehicle’s console.

A check revealed that the driver, Isaac L. Taylor of East Florida Avenue, was wanted on a warrant issued in February 2006 for his failure to appear in municipal court in a driving-under-suspension case. He was also wanted on a warrant issued in April 2007 in Mahoning County Area Court in Boardman for a probation violation in a driving-under-suspension case.

Taylor, 25, was charged with possession of marijuana and served with the old warrants. The intake deputy at the jail found another bag of marijuana in Taylor’s front jeans pocket, reports show.

Taylor was arraigned Wednesday in municipal court and bond was set at $6,000. He will be back in court Jan. 17.

Records at Mahoning County Common Pleas Court show that Taylor, who had pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in cocaine, was sentenced to 16 months in prison June 29, 2006. Two months later, his lawyer filed a motion for judicial release and he was brought back for a hearing on the matter.

On Sept. 29, 2006, Judge Jack Durkin granted the judicial release and Taylor was placed on two years’ probation. The probation, which should have ended in September 2008, was terminated by the judge Oct. 24, 2007, records show.

Taylor’s criminal history also includes a gun conviction when he was 19.

He was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and having a weapon under disability in April 2001. In a plea agreement in August 2001, the second charge was dismissed and he was placed on two years’ probation by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum, records show. The probation was terminated in December 2002.