Stitzel pleads guilty for mailing drugs to jail, then does it again, to prove love, he tells judge

YOUNGSTOWN

It was love that made a man send drugs through the mail to his girlfriend in the Mahoning County jail.

Jamie Stitzel, 35, of Rhoda Avenue, told Judge R. Scott Krichbaum that he mailed suboxone strips to his girlfriend three times in October because he loved her.

“My fiancee wanted me to prove to her that I loved her,” Stitzel said. “It was stupid, and I got busted.”

Judge Krichbaum said he did not consider the gesture very romantic.

“So love is defined by supplying drugs to your drug addicted fiancee?” Judge Krichbaum said before sentencing Stitzel to 27 months in prison. “Getting drugs to someone who is on drugs is not love.

“You don’t even know what love is.”

Stitzel was in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court for a sentencing hearing after pleading guilty to three counts of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility. While on bail on that charge, he was indicted last week on the same charge again for mailing suboxone strips to his fiancee.

Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond was set to recommend a sentence of 18 months for each of the counts to run concurrently

and also not to oppose a request for judicial release by Stitzel at the earliest time he can make the request, which is 30 days after he arrives in prison.

But because of the pending charge, Desmond said he withdrew that recommendation. He said not only was Stitzel indicted on a new count for the same offense, which is alleged to have happened after he entered his guilty pleas Jan. 26, but he was on probation from another court when he was indicted on the original three counts.

Read more about the case in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.