MOUNT VERNON — A Mount Vernon man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday on two counts of drug trafficking after he was found guilty in a two-day jury trial that concluded on July 10.
Paul D. Scott, 50, was sentenced in the Knox County Court of Common Pleas on Thursday to two five-year sentences, one per count, which will be served consecutively.
According to Judge Richard Wetzel, the charges Scott faced were the more serious felonies because it was determined that he had sold bulk amounts of meth to a confidential informant on two occasions and both instances were within 1,000 feet of a school — both of which were detailed in the trial.
Scott’s sentence consisted of two five-year terms, in part, because of the seriousness of the charges; the fact that Scott was already under a three-year term of community control and because he had been previously convicted of drug offenses on two other occasions. The previous trial had testimony from several police detectives who were instrumental in organizing controlled buys with the informant and Scott at a residence on West Vine Street in Mount Vernon. Each detective detailed the controlled buys and identified Scott’s voice on audio tapes that were made of the two transactions. The informant also confirmed Scott’s identity during his testimony, which was on the first day of the proceedings.
During the same hearing Thursday, Scott’s prior terms of community control were terminated because he had violated them when he was arrested and then found guilty in the jury trial.
In other Common Pleas cases from Thursday:
Catherine A. Schultz, 30, was sentenced to a two-year term of community control and a 230-day jail sentence (with 50 days credit) that was suspended if she successfully completed the program at the West Central Community Correctional Facility. She had previous submitted guilty pleas for the fifth-degree felony count of receiving stolen property and for OVI, a misdemeanor of the first degree.
Douglas Blanchard, 52, withdrew his pleas of not guilty and changed them to guilty in one hearing that was about two cases. He pleaded guilty to two separate counts of aggravated possession of drugs, both fifth-degree felonies, and one of OVI, a misdemeanor of the first degree. The charges come from two separate traffic stops less than a month apart where he was driving impaired and had possession of meth in one stop and had possession of drugs again in the second.
Jeannie L. Fairchild, 53, was sentenced to a 180-day term in jail, but it was suspended in lieu of her successfully completing the VOA program, after she had previously submitted a guilty plea to a fourth-degree felony OVI count. She was also sentenced to house arrest, had her license suspended for five years and has to be subjected to alcohol monitoring and assessment.
Alton Todd, 35, qualified for and was accepted into the Intervention in Lieu of Conviction (ILC) program after he submitted a plea of guilty to one count of aggravated possession of drugs.
