Judge Rocky Coss rendered sentencing of three years of community control each for two women and one man this week in Highland County Common Pleas Court.
In the judgment entry imposing community control sanctions, Krystal Lynn Boatman, 22, Chillicothe, was convicted of aggravated possession of drugs and possession of drugs, both fifth-degree felonies.
She was also ordered to complete transitional programming at ACM.
The court’s bill of particulars stated that on June 6, 2020, Hillsboro police responded to an altercation on Johnson Street at which point Boatman was arrested.
A subsequent search of a book bag she had in her possession revealed the presence of a clear container that contained two green pills, a zipper pouch which contained a film canister containing a clear capsule with a white powder substance, and a small baggie with a white powder substance.
Later analysis by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation found that the green pills contained flualprazolam, which is similar in content to the Schedule IV controlled substance benzodiazepine pharmacore; the white powder contained in the capsule and the baggie that held white powder were both verified as containing fentanyl, a Schedule II controlled substance.
Boatman had been previously convicted of a drug abuse offense in Hillsboro Municipal Court.
The bill of particulars in the case of Luke J. Merritt, 22, South Salem, stated that he fled from Greenfield police officers since he falsely believed they weren’t allowed to leave the village limits and that he had a small amount of marijuana in his vehicle.
Court documents showed that Merritt was convicted on the third-degree felony charge of failure to comply with the order or signal of a police officer in connection with speeding past a marked Greenfield police cruiser and squealing tires on Sept. 1, 2020.
A chase ensued on eastbound SR 28 at a high rate of speed, with the bill of particulars stating that Merritt was observed passing multiple vehicles and traveling in the opposite lane of traffic, narrowly missing vehicles head on.
He was arrested in South Salem after parking his vehicle, later surrendering to officers at the rear of a residence on Main Street.
Merritt was ordered in the judgment entry to three years community control, to pay a monthly supervision fee of $50 beginning May 1, 2021 to the Highland County Clerk of Courts to be credited to the county supervision fund, and his driver’s license was suspended for three years starting on March 3, 2021.
A report of a suspicious white van in the Rural King parking lot in Hillsboro on June 4, 2020 resulted in the arrest and later conviction of Donna Sue Everhart, 55, Hillsboro, on a third-degree felony charge of aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine.
In the court’s bill of particulars, officers arrested Everhart and another woman after a search of personal effects and the van itself turned up items used in the sale and trafficking of drugs, in addition to other items containing what was described as a crystal substance that was later determined to be methamphetamine.
In the judgment entry, Everhart was sentenced to three years community control, to continue aftercare for substance abuse disorder support groups and to pay a $500 fine.
The court document also mandated that all of the property contained in count three of her original indictment — a 2002 Chevrolet Express van and $642 in cash that officers found in Everhart’s purse — be forfeited to the Hillsboro Police Department.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.
