43
Man arraigned for overdoses at jail
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The man accused of providing drugs to two inmates who overdosed earlier this week at the Mahoning County jail was arraigned in municipal court.
Magistrate Anthony Sertick set bond at 10 percent of $40,000 for Victor Slocum, 22, of Aberdeen Avenue, who was arraigned Wednesday on charges of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility, corrupting another with drugs and two counts of trafficking in drugs.
Slocum was just about to be released from the jail Monday after managed to post on a bond on a possession-of-drugs charge from Struthers when the two inmates had to be revived with the opiate antidote Narcan by a jail nurse.
Jail officials charged Slocum with bringing in the drugs to the inmates.
The state Bureau of Criminal Investigation is running tests to see if the drug was fentanyl.
Sheriff’s officials would not say why they think Slocum supplied the drugs.
Assistant City Prosecutor Kathy Thompson asked for a bond of $40,000, saying that Slocum has an extensive criminal history involving drugs.
Slocum’s attorney, David Betras, asked for a $10,000 bond, saying there was no way his client could have smuggled drugs into the jail.
Betras said his client was strip-searched when he was booked into the jail on the charge from Struthers, and corrections officers did not find anything on him.
“I don’t know how they’re going to prove their case,” Betras said.
Sertick said he decided to grant Thompson’s request because of Slocum’s past history and the fact he already was in the jail on a drug charge.
Records from common pleas court show Slocum with convictions in 2012 for carrying a concealed weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm; for possession of cocaine in 2013; and he has a pending possession of heroin charge filed Dec. 30 for which he just had a pretrial hearing May 26.
A jury trial in that case is set for Sept. 12.
Sertick did, however, grant Betras’ request to make the bond 10 percent.
The two inmates were treated at St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital and released back to the jail.