Four years for man who sold drugs to undercover agents
A local man who admitted to employing a 17-year-old to deliver cocaine before his southside home was raided in July has been sentenced to four years in prison.
Judge Kelly Cottrill imposed the prison term Monday after Zanesville resident Jimmy J. Davidson pleaded guilty last month to three charges in Muskingum County Common Pleas Court. The charges stem from a multiagency investigation into Davidson's alleged drug crimes.
He was arraigned Aug. 5 and his trial was scheduled for Jan. 12 before he opted to appear for a plea change hearing in January.
The Muskingum County Sheriff's Office, Zanesville Police Department and the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force began investigating Davidson last March on a tip that he used a so-called "runner," a 17-year-old boy, to deliver cocaine to customers, according to the prosecutor's office.
Agents searched his home on Moxadarla Road in July after Davidson sold drugs to a confidential informant, said Assistant County Prosecutor Ron Welch during January's plea hearing.
During the searches, authorities reported they uncovered several guns, cash, cocaine, marijuana, prescription pain pills, and Spice, a type of synthetic drug, Muskingum County Sheriff Matt Lutz previously said at a July news conference.
The total value of the narcotics was about $5,500, according to the sheriff’s office.
Davidson pleaded guilty to trafficking cocaine, a third-degree felony; trafficking cocaine, a first-degree felony; and the corruption of another with cocaine, a second-degree felony.
The state dismissed another charge of trafficking in cocaine, a second-degree felony with a juvenile specification; another charge of corrupting another with cocaine, a second-degree felony; possession of cocaine, a second-degree felony; and aggravated possession of hydrocodone/acetaminophen, a fifth-degree felony.
Prison time was mandatory on the first-degree felony, which includes a specification indicating he sold drugs near a school. In addition, each trafficking charge carries a forfeiture specification, which requires Davidson to forfeit his profits to the state.
elagatta@zanesvilletimesrecorder.com