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Supermax inmate sentenced after receiving drugs in the mail
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
An inmate of the Ohio State Penitentary on the East Side had a little extra time tacked onto a sentence he is serving.
Adam Bridgeman, 29, pleaded guilty Tuesday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to three counts of illegal conveyance of prohibited items onto the grounds of a detention facility and was immediately sentenced by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum to 27 months in prison.
The sentence will be added on to time he already is serving on an aggravated robbery with a firearm specification conviction from Champaign County and a breaking and entering conviction from Miami County.
Records from the Ohio Department of Corrections show that Bridgeman has been in custody since 2008, and the sentence on those charges will expire in September 2021.
Assistant Prosecutor Steve Masczak said Bridgeman was receiving suboxone strips in the mail and two other people were helping him. The other two also were caught and will be sentenced at a later date.
The three were indicted in April.
Masczak said the two co-defendants are receiving lighter sentences than Bridgeman because Bridgeman was in charge of the operation, although Masczak said he did not know how long Bridgeman was receiving the suboxone or if he was using it himself or selling it to other inmates.
As part of his plea agreement, prosecutors agreed to not oppose a motion for judicial release after Bridgeman has served six months of his sentence on the illegal conveyance charges if he stays out of trouble while in prison.
Bridgeman’s lawyer, Robert Rohrbaugh, said the judicial-release component of the sentence gives his client an incentive to behave while he is in prison.
“It aids in rehabilitation while he is incarcerated,” Rohrbaugh said.