Man says ‘lure of drugs’ not worth it
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Marquis Huffman told a judge all the glitter and glitz of the drug trade is not worth it.
Huffman, 23, received a 41/2-year prison sentence Monday in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on several drug and identity-fraud charges and a charge of involuntary manslaughter for supplying the dosage of drugs that led to the May 2, 2015, death of George R. Taylor, 56. Taylor was found dead in a home in the 500 block of West Indianola Avenue.
Huffman told Judge Shirley J. Christian before he was sentenced he was sorry for his actions and what they did to the families of those who purchased heroin from him.
He said growing up poor in a housing project does not give some people a lot of options, so he opted to sell drugs to try to get out of that lifestyle.
“The lifestyle and profits are powerful to a young man such as myself,” Huffman said.
The sentence was agreed on between Assistant Prosecutor Martin Desmond and defense attorney Desirae Dipiero.
Besides Taylor’s death, Huffman was also one of 37 people charged with being part of a large heroin ring on the East Side last year, when he was a suspect in Taylor’s death.
When a grand jury indicted him in Taylor’s death, it indicted him under his brother’s name because he had given that name to investigators. It took a booking photo from a previous arrest and a tip from Huffman’s family to confirm authorities had the wrong person.
When he was taken into custody, he was charged with illegal conveyance because he was caught with heroin and cocaine in his cheeks when he was taken to the county jail. He has served 252 days in the jail while waiting for his case to be resolved.
Huffman said he has had a lot of time to reflect since he has been in the jail, and he knows what he did was wrong. He said the drug problem feeds on people who can’t cope with the pain and pressure of life.
“These days, people are looking in the wrong places and the wrong things and at the wrong people to take away the pain,” Huffman said.
Huffman said he wants to use his time in prison to be a better person and father to his two young children.
Desmond said authorities were able to link Huffman to Taylor’s death because they managed to find Taylor’s cellphone, and the last call on the phone was a number they traced to Huffman, who confessed to selling Taylor drugs.
Because Huffman lied about his identity, however, prosecutors still thought they were dealing with his brother, Desmond said.