43
Man tells judge he mailed drugs to girlfriend in Mahoning jail for 'love'
By Joe Gorman
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.
“I’m of the mind that the recidivism factors weigh against him,” Desmond said. The assistant prosecutor said he was sticking to the original 18-month sentence but was reserving judgment on the judicial-release aspect pending the outcome of Stitzel’s current case, which has been assigned to Judge Shirley Christian.
Mark Verkhlin, Stitzel’s lawyer, asked Judge Krichbaum to uphold the original agreement. He said his client never had a felony charge before, and Stitzel went on his own to get a drug assessment to deal with his own substance-abuse issues.
“Certainly he is not below rehabilitation,” Verkhlin said.
Judge Krichbaum, however, said there was no way he would grant Stitzel judicial release after just 30 days in prison.
Stitzel’s fiancee, Sara Wilson, 36, also of Rhoda Avenue, is set to be sentenced Thursday for the same charges Stitzler was sentenced to Tuesday.
Stitzel said he lost a brother three years ago and had addiction problems himself. He said he thought he might have been helping his fiancee because suboxone is a substance used to help heroin addicts wean themselves off the drug. He also may have unwittingly made a statement against himself in the new case because he said, “I was stupid to try and do it again.”
Stitzel said he wanted probation so he could get help for his addiction and help his parents. Judge Krichbaum said no.
“I don’t know if Santa Claus would give you a deal like that,” the judge said.
Judge Krichbaum sentenced Stitzel to nine months in prison for each of the three charges and ran all three sentences consecutively.