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LISBON -- Hearings were held in Common Pleas Court last week for several of the people indicted as part of the Operation Big Oak indictment.
Mark Bailey, 36, Y and O Road, Wellsville, was in court to be sentenced on a charge of aggravated trafficking in drugs in relation to the Big Oak case. He was also being sentenced at the same time for two counts of possession of drugs from another case for having 6-monoacetylmorphine and fentanyl on June 25, 2017.
Altogether, Bailey reportedly has five cases, which he said really stem from about six months of his life. Bailey told Judge C. Ashley Pike he has "nobody to blame here but myself."
He served time at the county jail while he was waiting for all the cases to wrap up and going into Monday, he only had about four months left to serve. However, because he had been at the jail all this time, both Bailey and his defense attorney Chris Weeda asked Pike to consider community control with time at the Eastern Ohio Corrections Center. Weeda said a counselor has only been to the jail to see him about six times and Bailey needs better tools to help him deal with his addiction when he is released.
Pike sentenced Bailey to a year in the Big Oak case, but gave him full credit for time served. However, he sentenced him to six more months on the drug possession charges. Pike told Bailey not to be discouraged, noting at the state prison there should be more programs.
"Hopefully the resources will be more abundant at the state prison system than it is at the county jail, which is a problem in and of itself," Pike said.
Antonio Fleming, also known as Ya-O, 33, Cleveland, another Big Oak person appeared for a pretrial and an arraignment for new charges. Fleming, who was represented on Monday by defense attorney Jennifer Gorby, claimed he has been unable to contact his former defense attorney, Kelly Linger, while he was in jail and after he was picked up on a bench warrant for failing to appear for a June hearing. Despite a request by Fleming for a lower bond, Pike left it at $50,000 cash or surety.
Fleming is charged with engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, two counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs, two counts of trafficking in cocaine and an aggravated possession of drugs in connection to the Operation Big Oak indictment. Additionally, Fleming now has new charges of aggravated robbery and felonious assault for his alleged involvement in the beating and robbing Joshua Peterson of his commissary money at the county jail on April 17.
A Dec. 11 jury trial remains scheduled for Allen Jackson, 26, Cleveland, one of the alleged Big Oak leaders. Jackson is facing charges of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, participating in a criminal gang, 10 counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs and four counts of trafficking in cocaine.
Marissa Shasteen, 25, Green Lane, East Liverpool, was placed on four years community control for aggravated trafficking in drugs and trafficking in heroin, both charges through the Operation Big Oak indictment.
"I fully take responsibility," Shasteen told Pike before her sentencing, "and I want you to know I am sorry."
Adam Gallimore, 32, Youngstown, was placed on four years community control for trafficking in heroin and aggravated trafficking in drugs, which were Operation Big Oak charges.
Likewise, Big Oak co-defendant Kelly A. Davis, 32, Lincoln Avenue, East Liverpool, was placed on four years community control for aggravated trafficking in drugs and trafficking in cocaine