Woman sentenced to 30 months in two separate drug cases

March 31, 2016 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

Lesa Paris told a Mahoning County Common Pleas judge Wednesday that she did not know she had cash and drugs on her the day she was arrested in municipal court.

Assistant Prosecutor Kevin Trapp told Judge Shirley Christian during a sentencing hearing Wednesday for the 39-year-old Paris that the drugs found on her Dec. 16 were hidden in a body cavity – and she was planning on distributing them in the Mahoning County jail.

Paris, however, disputed that.

“I wasn’t going to distribute them,” Paris said. “I didn’t even know I had them on me.”

“It wasn’t exactly on you,” Judge Christian told her. “It was in you. That’s kind of hard to get wrong.”

Paris, of Hazelwood Avenue, was sentenced to 30 months in prison in two separate drug cases Wednesday. In the first case, she received a 12-month sentence after pleading guilty to three fifth-degree felony counts of aggravated possession of drugs and misdemeanor counts of possession of drugs, possession of drug-abuse instruments and possession of drug paraphernalia.

In the second case, Paris was sentenced to 18 months in prison for pleading guilty to a felony charge of illegal conveyance of drugs into a detention facility. Trapp said that Paris was taken into custody in municipal court when she was there for a hearing on the first case she was sentenced for Wednesday. At the court, officers found $1,445 on her and when she was taken to the Mahoning County jail, a pill bottle was found in a body cavity that had individual doses of heroin and cocaine inside that were packaged as if they were to be sold.

In the first case, Paris was found passed out in a running car about 10:35 p.m. Nov. 11 at a gas station at 1 N. Meridan Road. Reports said officers found two needles and two spoons next to her as well as 30 pills in a bottle. More pills were found in her key chain when she was taken by ambulance to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital.

She told police she had not injected drugs, but officers found numerous needle tracks on her arms and legs and she gave police a fake name, reports said. Two days later, she left St. Elizabeth, where she was being treated, and later was caught. When she was taken to the jail, corrections officers there discovered her real name.

Trapp told Judge Christian that Paris has an extensive criminal record and that she has been to prison before.

Andrew Zellers, Paris’ lawyer, also told the judge he explained to his client that because of her past record, there was no way she could avoid prison time.

Pairs received credit for 55 days already served in the county jail. She can apply for judicial release, and prosecutors have agreed not to oppose her request should she behave well in prison. If she is granted judicial release, she will have to complete the drug program at Community Corrections Association.