Timothy Massengale, 47, was sentenced Friday in Allen County Common Pleas Court to five years in prison after the Richmond, Kentucky, resident accepted an offer from prosecutors and pleaded guilty to a first-degree felony charge of possession of a fentanyl-related compound.
J Swygart | The Lima News
LIMA — A man found to be in possession of an estimated $27,000 worth of fentanyl when his vehicle was stopped along Interstate 75 earlier this year was sentenced Friday to a minimum of five years in prison.
Timothy Massengale, 47, told Allen County Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey Reed he was transporting the fentanyl-related compound from Detroit to his home in Richmond, Kentucky, at the time of his arrest. He said the drugs were “mostly” for personal use.
Court records show that Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers stopped Massengale at 5:53 p.m. Feb. 20 in a Chevy Tahoe for following too close and for marked lane violations on I-75. The trooper reportedly smelled marijuana in the vehicle and conducted a probable cause search, finding a vacuum-sealed package containing 180 grams of suspected fentanyl.
Assistant Allen County Prosecutor Joshua Carp said the negotiated plea deal called for Massengale to plead guilty to a single count of possession of a fentanyl-related compound and to forfeit the 2007 Chevrolet Tahoe he was driving at the time of his arrest.
In exchange for that plea, prosecutors dismissed a first-degree felony charge of trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound. Attorneys had recommended the five-year prison sentence as part of the negotiated deal, and Reed imposed that time as a minimum sentence, with a 7 1/2-year maximum at the discretion of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction if Massengale misbehaves while in prison.
