Heroin addict professes love, but tells judge she knows it can't be

YOUNGSTOWN

Sara Wilson says she still loves the man who is spending more than two years in prison for mailing suboxone strips to her while she was an inmate at the Mahoning County jail.

But she no longer trusts him.

Wilson, 36, of Rhoda Avenue, spoke to Judge R. Scott Krichbaum in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court just before she was sentenced Thursday to 18 months in prison on three counts of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility. She said the man, Jamie Stitzel, 34, is a heroin addict like herself and she cannot be around him if she wants to kick her addiction.

“My love hasn’t changed for him,” she said. “I just know we can’t be together.”

On Tuesday, Stitzel received a 27-month prison from Judge Krichbaum for the same charges. He was accused of mailing the strips to Wilson while she was in the county jail three separate times in October. Stitzel told the judge at his sentencing that he did it to prove his love to Wilson.

Suboxone strips are used by heroin addicts as part of their recovery to wean themselves off the drug, but they are known to be abused.

Wilson, a mother of four who says she’s been a heroin addict for more than 10 years, said the “tipping point” was when Stitzel took a check of hers, cashed it and spent all the money on heroin.

Read more of the case in Friday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.