The Fourth District Court of Appeals granted the state’s motion to reconsider the conviction of a local man who provided a 17-year-old girl with more than 140 oxycodone tablets.
Terry Schwab, 57, was convicted in 2012 of one count of aggravated trafficking in drugs, two counts of corrupting another with drugs and one count of aggravated possession of drugs. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison after a four-day jury trial.
The appellate court reversed the count of corrupting another with drugs, finding that the record was insufficient on whether or not Schwab had furnished the drugs to another.
In his brief for appeal, the defense said, “there was insufficient evidence” to convict Schwab, and that “the jury’s verdict on all counts of the indictment was against the manifest weight of the evidence.”
But the state filed an application for reconsideration, arguing that “the jury was instructed on the definition of ‘furnished’ and did not lose its way or create a manifest miscarriage of justice when it found him guilty of corrupting another with drugs.”
“The court noted that the State called into question an error in its holding that was not fully considered when it should have been,” states a press release from Athens County Prosecutor Keller Blackburn’s office. “It therefore affirmed Schwab’s convictions and 20 year sentence.”
Schwab was arraigned in 2011 for corrupting a juvenile with drugs after providing a 17-year-old girl with 146 oxycodone tablets, according to a previous Post article.
The girl’s mother, Michelle Fidell, 47, also of Nelsonville, was charged for enabling her daughter in the trafficking of drugs. Fidell was incarcerated in the
Ohio Reformatory for Women, according to Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction documents, but is now on judicial release.
The juvenile sold the drugs to a confidential informant with the assistance of Fidell, according to documents.
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This article appeared in print under the headline "State reviews local conviction"
