A Seaman man was sentenced to at least 36 months in prison for an amended count of aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine this week in Highland County Common Pleas Court.
Billy Suiter, 47, was given four days of jail-time credit.
Court records state that Suiter was ordered to pay a fine of $5,000, with half of it going to the Highland County Task Force and the other half going to the Highland County Prosecutor’s Office. They said that Suiter was ordered to pay restitution of $135 to the Highland County Task Force.
According to court records, on or around July 1, 2021, Suiter sold $135 in a substance to an informant. The substance was sent to BCI for analysis and tested positive as 3.45 grams of meth. The meth was sold within 1,000 feet of St. Mary Catholic School.
In other sentencings, Dean Murray, 58, South Salem, was sentenced to six years of community control from two separate cases, each giving him three years of community control.
In both cases, Murray was sentenced on one count of aggravated possession of meth. Murray was accepted into the New Way to Recovery Drug Court Docket.
In the first case, court records state that if Murray violates any of the community control or drug court sanctions, he would be given a sentence of six and 12 months and ordered to pay a fine of $2,500.
According to court records for the first case, on March 16, 2021, a sergeant was dispatched to a location on Jefferson Street in Greenfield due to a report of a male passed out in a van with a shotgun on the passenger seat. When officers arrived on the scene, they positively identified the lone occupant of the van as Murray, who the sergeant was familiar with from prior interactions. The sergeant also saw that the item on the passenger seat was a crossbow and not a shotgun. The sergeant tried to wake Murray up by knocking on the window of the van. Murray started to wake up after several tries, after which the sergeant told Murray to roll down the window or open the door.
Eventually, the sergeant opened the van door and started to speak to Murray. The sergeant saw that Murray’s eyes were bloodshot and looked to be constricted. Murray said that he was sober and had been for about 24 hours. The sergeant then asked Murray to step out of the vehicle and conducted a pat-down, according to court records.
While doing the pat-down, the sergeant felt a torch and a plastic container inside Murray’s jacket pocket as well as what the sergeant believed to be a box of cigarettes. The sergeant told Murray that the box likely contained narcotics based on their experience. The sergeant asked Murray if they could see the container. Murray started to reach into the vehicle and the sergeant told Murray to step away from it. Murray then reached into his pockets and leaned into the van. The sergeant moved behind Murray and told him to stop. He then took out a black carton from his pocket and tossed it into the van. The item landed on the driver’s seat and the sergeant recognized it to be digital scales, court records state.
The sergeant opened the scales and found a crystalline residue covering the balance, according to the records.
The sergeant checked Murray’s jacket and found a glass pipe with burnt crystal residue, a folded wax paper filled with a waxy substance and a baggie that contained a crystal substance. The crystal substance was sent to BCI for analysis and was found to contain meth, the records state.
In the second case, court records state that if Murray violates any of the community control or drug court sanctions, he would be given a sentence of six and 12 months and ordered to pay a fine of $2,500.
According to court records for the second case, on April 3, 2021, a patrol officer saw a tan cargo van going northbound on South Street in Greenfield and that the van looked similar to a van that belonged to Murray. The officer was aware that Murray had an active warrant for his arrest.
The officer conducted a traffic stop on the van on Jefferson Street, where the driver of the van was identified as Murray. The officer patted Murray down before putting him in a patrol vehicle. Items that were found on Murray were put in a property bag, court records state.
Two other officers arrived on the scene to assist and Murray told them his daughter was in the van. The sergeant asked Murray if there was anything else in the van that the officers should be aware of and Murray said there were multiple knives. He also said there might might be drugs inside, according to court records.
An officer transported the juvenile to her mother’s residence while other officers took inventory of the vehicle before it was towed. One of the officers found an exhaust in the back of the van that looked to have been freshly cut, along with multiple cutting tools and a variety of other tools, court records state.
An officer found a pipe with burn marks and a white powdery substance in the center console of the van along with a cigarette pack that contained multiple smoking devices as well as burnt marijuana joints in the center console. The crystalline substance was submitted to BCI for analysis and found to contain meth.
Reach Jacob Clary at 937-402-2570.
