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Women get sentences relating to heroin, opiates usage
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jenna Nair and Kellie Kearney were each sentenced in municipal court Thursday on charges relating to their use of heroin.
Nair managed a smile for her attorney at the end of her hearing.
Kearney, who was next, was reduced to tears.
Both told Judge Elizabeth Kobly they had periods of sobriety amid their addictions, and both have children – Kearney three of them. Nair already is serving 150 days in jail from Mahoning County Court in Boardman for theft and OVI offenses. Her arrest and sentence in Boardman violated her probation through Judge Kobly on an April 2014 disorderly conduct charge.
Nair told the judge she was prescribed opiates for injuries suffered in a car accident when she was 19, and that turned into addiction. Her attorney, Mark Lavelle, told the judge that his client is trying treatment again, and there is a place at a treatment center waiting for her. He said sobriety and relapse is par for the course for a lot of drug addicts.
“It’s just a cycle,” Lavelle said. “Sometimes they get clean. Sometimes they die.”
Nair said she wants to get sober and stay that way.
“I really want to get clean. I really don’t want to live like this,” Nair said.
Judge Kobly sentenced her to 30 days in the county jail on the probation violation, and just before she took her seat, Nair was talking to her attorney and flashed a smile.
Kearney, who pleaded no contest to charges of driving under suspension and possession of drug paraphernalia after a June 19 traffic stop at Hillman and Cleveland avenues where two suboxone strips were found in her car, was next. She is also serving a 75-day jail sentence for an unrelated charge from Judge Robert Milich.
The 29-year-old Kearney said she has been addicted to heroin since she was 26. She said she was once clean for a year and wants to get clean again.
“I do have a degree,” Kearney said. “I want to use it.”
But Judge Kobly said her degree meant nothing because of her addiction, and she rattled off a list of offenses she has been arrested for in the past, including four for driving under suspension within the past year, receiving stolen property, misuse of a credit card and theft.
“Heroin sucks the life right out of you,” Judge Kobly said. “So much for having a degree and being a productive citizen. That’s what heroin does to you. It takes you right down to the gutter.”
Kearney said she has three children, one of whom lives with her parents and two others who were taken away because of her addiction. Judge Kobly said if someone chooses drugs over their children, there is not much that can be done for them.
“You’re despicable for losing your children and choosing a needle over them,” Judge Kobly said.
Judge Kobly sentenced Kearney to 180 days in jail for the drug charge and an additional 30 for driving under suspension. Kearney was in tears when the hearing was over, and she sat down before being taken out of the courtroom.