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City man gets 30 months in prison in heroin case
CLEVELAND
A federal judge has sentenced a Youngstown man to 30 months in prison after a jury convicted him of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin and three counts of using a telephone to facilitate drug trafficking.
Jabbar D. Spires, 38, drew the sentence Monday from U.S. District Judge James S. Gwin.
Beyond the sentence in this case, Spires drew an additional eight-consecutive months in prison because the charges in this case constituted a violation of the supervised release he had been on in another federal case.
In this case, Spires could have faced up to 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and up to four years in prison on the telephone charges.
A pre-sentence investigation report prepared by the U.S. probation office suggested Spires should serve 92 to 115 months in prison.
However, a sentencing memorandum filed by Spires’ lawyer, Alek El-Kamhawy of Lakewood, said such a long sentence would be unfair because Spires bought only about 3 grams of the drug and had trouble paying for it.
The PSI’s recommendation is based on Spires’ purported conversation with a co-defendant concerning 100 grams, but Spires’ lawyer said there’s no evidence Spires followed up on that amount.
There are 28 grams in an ounce.
Spires was indicted in a charge of conspiracy to distribute heroin in a Georgia-to-Youngstown trafficking ring that operated in 2013 and 2014.
Three co-defendants who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin and conspiracy to launder money, drew the following prison sentences July 27 from Judge Gwin:
Vincent D. Moorer, 31, of Lithonia, Ga., eight years and four months.
His sister, Keyonia M. Moorer, 35, of Akron, three years and four months.
Charity A. Cousin, 29, of Warren, two years and six months.
The case was prosecuted by David M. Toepfer and Jason Matthew Katz, both Youngstown-based assistant U.S. attorneys, and Phillip J. Tripi, a Cleveland-based assistant U.S. attorney.