Gregory Preston, 32, of Cincinnati, was sentenced to six years in prison for selling meth to an undercover FBI agent in Fort Jennings last summer.
J Swygart | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Two men from Southern Ohio charged with selling methamphetamine to an undercover FBI agent in Fort Jennings last summer were sentenced Monday in Putnam County Common Pleas Court.
Gregory Preston, 32, and William Brown, 38, were sentenced to minimum prison terms of six years each for transporting a large quantity of meth from the Dayton area to a residence on North Water Street in Fort Jennings on Aug. 4 of last year.
Brown will also serve more than two years remaining on Post Release Control time for earlier convictions in Greene, Montgomery and Clinton counties.
Each of the co-defendants, who were sentenced some four hours apart, labeled the other as the principal actor in orchestrating the drug deal.
Preston told Judge Keith Schierloh he was paid $1,500 to transport approximately 200 grams of meth to a woman who turned out to be a law enforcement informant.
Attorney Kenneth Rexford said his client was little more than an “idiot mule,” a middle man in the drug transaction. Asked by the judge who had paid him to deliver the meth, Preston at first remained silent. Eventually he said Brown, his cousin, had paid him.
“I would like to apologize to the court and to the community. I was just delivering drugs, sir,” Preston told Schierloh. “I made a dumb mistake.”
Brown acknowledged his role in the transaction, but said he “never delivered drugs to this county. I was homeless and just needed some cash.”
Elizabeth Smith, a public defender representing Brown, claimed her client “did not procure or deliver” the controlled substance and had a “reduced” role in the event.
Schierloh pointed out contrasting stories on the part of the two men.
“Your co-defendant said the same thing; that he was just along for the ride,” the judge told Brown.
Preston was indicted by a grand jury on single counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs and aggravated trafficking in drugs, felonies of the first degree. He entered into a plea deal with prosecutors in November and pleaded guilty to an amended trafficking charge that reduced the level of the offense to a second-degree felony.
Brown was indicted on counts of first-degree felony trafficking and possession of drugs. He pleaded guilty to a single count of aggravated trafficking in drugs, a felony of the second degree.
Schierloh pointed to Brown’s lengthy criminal history in doling out a sentence that will result in a minimum of eight-plus years behind bars.
