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Man pleads for delivery of painkillers
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
Jonathan Gray pleaded guilty to taking delivery of 3,000 painkillers in 2017. He admitted in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court he took some of those same painkillers Monday evening before he pleaded guilty Tuesday to a felony charge of possession of drugs.
Gray, 30, of Warren, was asked by Judge Lou A. D’Apolito if had taken any drugs before he came into court.
Gray said, however, they did not affect his judgment when answering the judge’s question during the plea hearing.
“You didn’t think anyone was going to ask?” Judge D’Apolito said to Gray.
Prosecutors are recommending a nine-month sentence for Gray, who is free on bond. A pre-sentence investigation will be done before he is sentenced Oct. 26. A charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm was dropped in exchange for his plea.
Gray was arrested Aug. 31, 2017, after members of the Mahoning Valley Law Enforcement Task Force were tipped off to a suspicious package being delivered to the home of Gray’s grandmother on Regis Street on the East Side. The package contained 3,000 painkillers that were delivered from India.
Gray was arrested in a car and then taken to his grandmother’s house. Officers forced their way inside and found a Ruger 9 mm semi-automatic pistol and a rifle.
Gray told the judge the guns were not his but he then said that his grandmother is deceased. The judge was not satisfied.
“I don’t like people playing with guns while they’re playing with drugs,” Judge D’Apolito said.
In October 2017, Gray was sentenced to 10 months in prison after pleading guilty to bringing drugs into the county jail. Reports said Gray was a passenger in a car pulled over April 6, 2017, for not having a front license plate. When police searched the car, they found several boxes of pills where he was sitting.
When he was booked into the county jail, a bag of marijuana was found in his buttocks, reports said.