Suspect pleads guilty to trafficking drugs in Ottawa County jail

A man who admitted to participating in drug deals while behind bars in Ottawa County was sentenced to 30 months in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday.

John Wyatt, 35, of Beaver, Ohio, pleaded guilty to complicity to conveyance of drugs onto grounds of a detention facility, a third-degree felony, in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court.

On Wednesday, Wyatt admitted in court to acting as a middle man for drug deals while he was jailed at the Ottawa County Detention Facility.

Timothy Johnson and Corwin Qualls, both of Toledo, were also alleged to have been involved and all three were each indicted on more than a dozen felony charges earlier this year.

According to reports from the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and the Ottawa County Drug Task Force, illegal substances that had been smuggled into the Ottawa County Detention Facility were being distributed to inmates by Johnson, Qualls and Wyatt.

One inmate reportedly overdosed and was hospitalized after ingesting the substance. According to the Ottawa County Prosecutor’s Office, the illegal substances included fentanyl.

In September, Qualls pleaded guilty to four of the third-degree felony charges, including money laundering, conveyance of drugs, and complicity, and was sentenced to a total of 20 years in prison.

Earlier this month, Johnson pleaded guilty to two charges, a third- and fourth-degree felony, and is scheduled for a sentencing hearing in November.

Wyatt, after pleading guilty on Wednesday, was sentenced to a total of 30 months in prison by Ottawa County Common Pleas Court Judge Bruce Winters.

“I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I’m not going to say I didn’t know what was going on,” Wyatt said in court Wednesday. “I should have told somebody before it got out of hand and I didn’t and I’m sorry.”

Wyatt went on to say that he assisted in the transfer of the drugs to another inmate.

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