OFFICIAL HOPES DRUG SENTENCE JOLTS COUNTY

MARYSVILLE, Ohio -- The Union County prosecutor hopes phones are
ringing all over town this weekend, and he hopes convicted drug dealer
Marsha Shoemaker is the topic of every one of those
conversations.

"I very much want Marsha Shoemaker to stand as an example," David
Phillips said. "I hope her conviction sends a very strong message that
we will hold drug traffickers responsible when someone dies."

Shoemaker, 45, is serving a 14-year prison sentence after being
convicted Wednesday of involuntary manslaughter in the death last
summer of 21-year-old Justin Phelps, a friend of her son's.

Phelps died July 2 after an allnight party at a friend's house. An
autopsy showed he had more than two times a lethal dose of morphine in
his system.

A Union County jury decided that when Shoemaker traded Phelps at least
21 high-dosage morphine capsules for a bag of marijuana, she helped
cause his death.

The drug-abuse problem, particularly for heavily controlled opiates
such as morphine and OxyContin, is escalating in the area, said Bob
Ahern. He is site manager for Consolidated Care Inc., a Union County
counseling service and group-home operator.

It's a significant problem particularly among teenagers and young
adults, he said.

Phillips said the escalation is cause for concern. He has two more
morphine-related overdose cases under investigation for possible
prosecution.

He has been prosecuting cases in Union County since 1988, and
Shoemaker's conviction last week was the first he can recall locally
in which someone who sold or traded drugs was held criminally
responsible for an overdose death.

When preparing for trial, he said, he could find few similar cases on
the books elsewhere.

Such cases, he said, are difficult and time-consuming.

"By their nature, drug transactions are secret. There are rarely
witnesses to them, and obviously no one keeps records," he said.

John Murphy, executive director of the Ohio Prosecuting Attorneys
Association, said he knows of no clearinghouse to track the number of
prosecutions against drug suppliers in overdose cases. Anecdotally, he
hasn' t heard of any uptick in such prosecutions. But he said such a
trend would be welcome.

"It's a tool that's out there, available," he said.

Perhaps just as important as the conviction of Shoemaker, however, is
the length of the sentence. A review of some notable overdose cases in
central Ohio in the past few years turned up shorter sentences.

In 2004, drug-supplier Edward Williams II of Franklin County
received a 7-year prison sentence for involuntary manslaughter in the
morphine-overdose death of a local athlete.

In 2005, Robert Jones III drew a 12-year sentence in Licking County
for providing the heroin that killed his father and a friend.

In Shoemaker's case, Phillips recommended eight years. Judge Richard
Parrott 's 14-year sentence should just serve to boost the message,
Phillips said.

"Just like the bar owner who serves too much alcohol and someone dies,
the drug dealer will also be held accountable," he said. "I wanted
that to be clear."

Defense attorney Shawn Dominy said Shoemaker plans to appeal. He said
she knew she was being used as an example.

"Hers was the first of its kind to go forward locally," Dominy said.
"I knew there was a desire to send a strong message to the community
of what would happen in these cases.

"And it appears they met their objective."