Sebring man sentenced on drug charge

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

A man who was on probation for nonsupport of a dependent has been sentenced to nine months in prison after being convicted of a drug charge.

Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court sent Rodney C. Steen, 46, of West Maryland Avenue, Sebring, to prison Wednesday because the new charge constituted a probation violation.

Judge Krichbaum had put Steen, whose $22,448 child support debt for his son has been accumulating since 1995, on five years’ probation in May 2008 after Steen pleaded guilty to nonsupport.

Steen, who purportedly sold a pill to an undercover Sebring police officer on April 28, was charged with Hydrocodone trafficking but pleaded no contest in Sebring court to a lesser charge of permitting drug abuse. There, he was sentenced to 180 days in jail, with 171 of the days suspended.

Judge Krichbaum routinely warns defendants he puts on probation that he’ll send them to prison if they violate terms of their probation.