Woman leads police on chase, then swallows hidden drugs at jail

May 26, 2017 at 12:00a.m.

Substance was hidden in suspect’s private area

YOUNGSTOWN

Police said a Liberty woman with a long history of drug charges had to be hospitalized Thursday morning after she swallowed drugs she had concealed in her private area while being booked into the Mahoning County jail.

Christina Gradillas, 37, of Montrose Drive was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital after she swallowed the substance while in a changing room at the jail where she was to be booked after leading police on a vehicle and foot chase.

After Gradillas was examined, she was taken back to the jail and is expected to be arraigned today on charges of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer, possession of drug paraphernalia, obstructing official business, tampering with evidence and illegal conveyance of prohibited items at or into a detention facility.

Gradillas was arrested about 12:35 a.m. Thursday after reports said she failed to stop for an officer whose cruiser she almost collided with on Zedaker Avenue on the South Side. Reports said officer Kenneth Garling was driving on Zedaker on patrol when a car Gradillas was driving in the opposite direction almost hit him.

Garling turned around and tried to pull Gradillas over, but she failed to stop, instead leading him on a chase up to 80 mph before stopping at East Dewey and Zedaker avenues and running away.

Garling and Detective Sgt. Josh Kelly caught her after a short foot chase in a backyard in the 900 block of Pasadena Avenue.

Reports said officers found four used needles and two burnt spoons in a bag that was in her car.

In the jail, just before she was taken into a changing room, she told officers she had used heroin and crack right before she was arrested. Inside the changing room, she grabbed a rock-like substance she had hidden inside her, shouted, “I’m trying to change my life! Why are you doing this to me?” and then swallowed the substance.

An ambulance was called for Gradillas. She was taken back to the jail after being examined at the hospital.

Court records show Gradillas has a history of drug-related offenses dating back to 2007. In Mahoning County Common Pleas Court, she was sentenced to a year in prison in August 2015 after she pleaded guilty to a charge of possession of cocaine, and a month later she was given probation of one year and a 120-day jail sentence for another charge of possession of cocaine.

Court records do not show if that sentence was consecutive or concurrent to the prison sentence.