Prison time ordered in drug trafficking case

Published 9:16 am Friday, February 15, 2013

A South Point woman will spend the next five years in prison for her part in selling prescription drugs at a local motel.

Heather Ratliff, 29, of 23A Private Drive 2824, was sentenced for first-degree complicity to trafficking in drugs Wednesday in Lawrence County Common Pleas Court, to which she had previously pleaded guilty.

Judge D. Scott Bowling also ordered the woman to pay a $20,000 fine and suspended her driver’s license for one year.

Email newsletter signup

Ratliff was arrested in late September following a raid by the Lawrence Drug and Major Crimes Task Force at the South Hills Motel in South Point.

During the raid, 295 oxycodone pills with a street value of more than $8,800 were seized, as well as more than $1,600 in cash. Manuel Anderson, 33, of 721 Sixth Ave., Huntington W.Va., was also arrested during the raid.

Anderson was sentenced in December to six years in prison, a $20,000 fine, a one-year suspension of his driver’s license and a forfeiture of $1,600 in cash after pleading guilty to two counts of trafficking in oxycodone and one count of possession of oxycodone.

In other cases:

• Cassandra Frazier, 23, of 410 Walnut St., Ironton, was arraigned on a bill of information of fifth-degree possession of drugs (oyxcontin). She pleaded guilty and Bowling sentenced her to six months in prison, a $1,500 fine and a six-month driver’s license suspension.

• Jeremy McMillan, 29, of 3706 S. Third, St., Ironton, admitted community control sanctions violations of failing to report to the adult probation department.

Bowling sentenced the man to six months in jail and added 100 hours to his 200-hour community service commitment.

• Hank Starr, 48, of 525 County Road 15, South Point, admitted CCS violations and was sentenced to one year in prison.

• Darrel Gore, 50, of 16 Township Road 616, South Point, pleaded guilty to fourth-degree receiving stolen property, which was amended from second-degree complicity to burglary.

Bowling ordered a pre-sentence investigation and set sentencing for Feb. 27.

• Paul Anderson, 30, of 275 N. Third St., Ironton, admitted CCS violations. Bowling set sentencing for Feb. 27.

• Terry Gibson, 22, of 931 Washington St., Flatwoods, Ky., admitted CCS violations and was sentenced to time already served in jail. Bowling also ordered two months of GPS monitoring and added 100 community service hours to his remaining 170 hours.

• Emory Markle Jr., 32, of 614 1/2 Lawrence St., Ironton, denied CCS violations. Bowling set a trial Feb. 27.