2 men acquitted in cocaine case

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A jury acquitted two Warren men of a first- degree felony charge of crack-cocaine possession after 90 minutes of deliberation at the end of a three-day trial.

Dwight L. Mason, 35, of Oriole Place Southwest, and Stanley Redd Jr., 31, of North Park Avenue, were acquitted Thursday in the courtroom of Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol stopped the car Mason and Redd occupied on Interstate 76 in Milton Township while it was en route from Akron to Warren on Oct. 17, 2008, and found about 39 grams of crack cocaine in the toe of a tennis shoe on the back seat, according to Jennifer McLaughlin, an assistant county prosecutor. There are 28 grams in an ounce.

Testifying as an expert narcotics witness, Detective Sgt. Michael Lambert of the Youngstown Police Department said the street value of the crack found there could range between $1,350 and $7,800.

McLaughlin said her main problem was that she had a tough time trying to prove that Mason and Redd knew the drug was in the shoe on the back seat.

Neither defendant was the owner of the car, and neither claimed ownership of the tennis shoes or cocaine when they spoke to the patrol, McLaughlin said.

The patrol found the drugs in a search of the car, which was towed from the scene of the traffic stop, she said.

Had they been convicted, the defendants would have faced three to 10 years in prison.