6/29/11 Marijuana, Suboxone drug pleas in common pleas court

  • By Nick Sabo
  • June 29, 2011
  • 260
                        
A Mansfield man said he sold drugs while out on bond for a previous drug offense to keep a friend from using heroin. Andrew Stout, 34, 646 Sherwood Drive, pleaded Wednesday June 29 in Holmes County Common Pleas Court to one count of sale of a schedule II drug in the vicinity of a juvenile. The charge stems from April 25, when Stout sold a confidential informant Suboxone for $20. “My friend, he was supposed to be a real good friend, he was either going to use heroin or Suboxone,” Stout said. “I have a prescription for it, I’m a recovering heroin addict.” Stout sold the Suboxone after he was arrested a month earlier by Holmes County Sheriff’s deputies for possessing chemicals used to make methamphetamine. Suboxone is a drug used in the treatment of opiate addiction. It produces a similar high, but less potent, as opiates, and is used to wean the user off their addiction. The attempted illegal assembly or possession of chemicals for the manufacture of methamphetamine charge stems from a Feb. 23 traffic stop. Stout was passenger in a motor vehicle stopped for a routine traffic citation. A search of the car turned up five boxes of pseudoephedrine cold pills, lantern fuel, batteries and tools typically used to remove lithium strips from batteries, all items commonly used to make methamphetamine. Stout is scheduled for sentencing on both charges July 7. A joint sentencing agreement arrived at by Stout’s attorney, Christina Smith, and Prosecuting Attorney Steve Knowling, recommends two years in prison. Also in Holmes County Common Pleas Court, Brandon L. Elder, 20, Wooster, pleaded Tuesday June 28 to one count of trafficking in marijuana. The charge states that Elder sold marijuana for $60 Nov. 12 to a confidential informant working with the Holmes County Sheriff’s narcotics division. Common Pleas Judge Robert D. Rinfret ordered a presentence investigation and scheduled Elder’s sentencing for Aug. 18. Elder faces up to 12 months in prison on the charge.


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