Passenger in car with heroin gets six months in jail

August 30, 2017 at 12:02a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

It apparently did not dawn on Gina Pewritt on Tuesday that she was going to jail for five months, until a deputy sheriff turned her around to handcuff her.

The 30-year-old New York City woman had just been sentenced to five years’ probation by Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court on a third-degree felony charge of trafficking in heroin for which attorneys recommended probation.

The judge agreed with the probation part, but he also stipulated that the first six months of that probation be spent in the county jail because he thought Pewritt knew more than she let on after being a passenger in a car pulled over in February by state troopers on Interstate 76, where 1.9 pounds of heroin and $19,980 cash were found. She is getting credit for 27 days she previously served in jail.

“Oh, my God, how could you do this to me?” Pewritt said through tears as she was handcuffed. She was also worried about the fate of her 7-year-old son.

Deputies would not let her call anyone but her attorney, Michael Kivlighan, grabbed her phone out of her purse to call someone. As she was led down the hall in the judge’s chambers, she told her attorney: “That’s not what I agreed to.”

Judges do not have to abide by sentencing agreements in plea agreements. In the past, Judge Krichbaum has not been shy about handing down sentences not called for in plea agreements if he thinks the case warrants it.

The driver of the car, Jasmine Stephenson, 31, is expected to be sentenced today, and prosecutors are recommending a two-year sentence for her, said assistant Prosecutor Steve Maszczak. Maszczak said he was recommending probation for Pewritt because she has just one prior misdemeanor conviction and cooperated with investigators.

Kivlighan pointed out that when Pewritt was arrested with the driver, the driver was immediately bailed out of jail and had a lawyer hired for her. Pewritt stayed in jail for 27 days before her bond could be lowered, and the court had to appoint an attorney for her. Kivlighan said his client traveled from New York to Baltimore, Md., to meet the driver, drove to Cleveland, and was on her way back Baltimore when they were pulled over for speeding. The trooper smelled marijuana and searched the car.

Pewritt apologized and said she just wants to get back to raising her son. “I’m all he has,” she said. “I will not do this again.”

Judge Krichbaum said he agreed that Pewritt had less culpability than Stephenson, but he added he was not naive enough to think that she was in a car with someone who was using drugs and transporting a large amount of drugs and knew nothing about it.

“I guess I have to be a whole lot less experienced to believe that,” Judge Krichbaum said.