Youngstown man gets 3 years for friend’s overdose death

By Justin Wier | August 4, 2017 at 12:05a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

A Youngstown man will serve three years in prison for providing his friend of 15 years with the fentanyl-laced heroin on which he fatally overdosed.

Scott Bowden, 32, of Youngstown, pleaded guilty Thursday to trafficking in heroin and involuntary manslaughter for his role in the Dec. 14, 2016, death of Michael Vrable, 29, of Canfield.

Bowden told Judge John M. Durkin of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court he doesn’t know how he got to the point where his actions led to the death of a friend.

“I allowed my addiction to negatively influence my ability to make good decisions,” Bowden said. “I pray every day for forgiveness from God.”

Bowden also received a mandatory five years probation upon release.

Judge Durkin had interacted with Vrable in the past. He was a graduate of Mahoning County Felony Drug Court, which Judge Durkin oversees. A relapse led to his overdose, prosecutors said.

“This is an epidemic affecting all of us,” Judge Durkin said.

Thursday wasn’t the first time heroin addiction landed Bowden in the Mahoning County Courthouse.

In 2015, Judge Lou A. D’Apolito told Bowden it was his last shot when Bowden pleaded guilty to obstructing official business. Bowden nearly hit an officer on traffic duty and fled when the officer gave chase. He threw drugs out the window and swallowed some as well.

He told the court heroin was to blame for that decision as well.

“I don’t want to use it as an excuse, but my drug problem got the best of me,” Bowden said at the time.

Bowden has previous convictions for having a weapon under disability and improperly handling a firearm in a motor vehicle in 2011, possession of heroin in 2007 and trafficking in cocaine in 2005. A probation violation following the 2005 conviction led to a three-year prison sentence.

At the 2015 hearing, his father suggested he was exhausted by Bowden’s continual run-ins with the law.

“He’s about at the end of his rope with his family, too, sir,” Bowden’s father told the court at the time.