Friday, February 1st, 2008
Drugs, kidnapping net prison time
By Shelley Grieshop
A 25-year-old Lima man was sentenced this week to nine years in prison for selling cocaine to undercover cops in the presence of two local juveniles in late October.
Sean Fowler also was ordered to pay a $3,820 fine and the same amount in restitution to the Grand Lake Task Force, the investigating agency in the case. Fowler pleaded guilty in December to cocaine trafficking, a second-degree felony, and attempted kidnapping, a third-degree felony. He originally faced a maximum 13 years in prison and a $25,000 fine.
Auglaize County Common Pleas Court Judge Frederick Pepple sentenced Fowler to five years in prison for the trafficking charge and four years in prison for attempted kidnapping, to be served concurrently. Fowler also received a five-year operator's license suspension.
According to the Auglaize County Sheriff's Office, Fowler and Michael J. Centers, 31, also of Lima, sold approximately 113 grams of cocaine to two undercover officers on Oct. 31. The two juveniles, whose names and ages were not made public, were taken into protective custody and later released to their parents, officials said.
The youths reportedly were not held against their will but were too young to knowingly participate or be charged with the crime.
Centers, earlier this month, pleaded guilty to two counts of cocaine trafficking, third- and fifth-degree felonies, and abduction, a third-degree felony. His sentencing is set for Feb. 15. He faces a maximum 11 years in prison and more than $35,000 in fines.
