43
Court documents: mom sold drugs to teen daughter, overdose victim
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A bill of particulars for two men and a woman charged in the September overdose death of a Boardman teen said the woman sold or gave drugs to her own 16-year-old daughter and the victim.
The bill of particulars, filed Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, also says one of the defendants took the victim, Erin Trell, 18, of Boardman, to a hospital and left. But before he did, he erased applications from her cellphone to hinder the in- vestigation.
Marijo Mazon, 46, of Boardman, faces charges of trafficking in drugs and corrupting another with drugs; Gary Hartman, 24, also of Boardman, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, corrupting another with drugs and two counts of trafficking in drugs; and Ruben Best, 20, of Warren, faces charges of involuntary manslaughter, tampering with evidence, trafficking in drugs and trafficking in drugs containing cocaine.
They all have been held in the Mahoning County jail since their arrests after being secretly indicted by a grand jury Feb. 20.
Trell died Sept. 30 after taking several different drugs in a South Side home. An autopsy determined she died from a combination of drugs including cocaine, marijuana and Xanax (used to treat anxiety and panic disorders).
Although Mazon does not face a charge related to Trell’s death, the bill of particulars says she sold or gave Xanax to her daughter, who is 16, and Trell on Sept. 26 or 27.
Best is accused of taking Trell to the hospital and leaving her there. Court papers say that before he gave her phone to hospital employees, he deleted text messages, numbers from her contacts and other information because he knew there would be an investigation and he was trying to hinder that investigation.
Best is accused of selling Xanax and cocaine to Trell and Mazon’s daughter, and Hartman is accused of selling Opana (a painkiller) to just Trell and marijuana to Trell and Mazon’s daughter.
Mazon has an April 17 trial scheduled before Judge Maureen Sweeney. Hartman and Best have pretrial hearings for the same day, also scheduled before Judge Sweeney.
Last year, two people were sentenced for their roles in providing drugs used in overdose deaths in Mahoning County and one person was sentenced in Trumbull County.
In Trumbull County, James Patterson, of Division Street in Youngstown, was given a 20-year sentence for supplying the heroin that led to the death of a Girard teen on her 17th birthday in April 2012.
In Mahoning County, Jamal Vaughn, 28, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the death of a 22-year-old woman in February 2012 from a heroin overdose, although some of his sentence was for other crimes.
Also in Mahoning County, James Fortunato, 26, was sentenced to five years’ probation for a charge of reckless homicide for helping to supply the heroin that led to the death of a 21-year-old man inside the home of the man’s parents in November 2009.