LIMA — The allure of cheap heroin lured Kurt Vanmeter from Wisconsin to Lima. It also earned him an 11-year stay in an Ohio prison.
Vanmeter, 24, was sentenced Friday in Allen County Common Pleas Court on an involuntary manslaughter charge for providing heroin to Lima resident Frank Coleman on the afternoon of Nov. 24, 2017. Coleman died later that day of a drug overdose.
Vanmeter, who has previously resided in Tennessee and Wisconsin and has no known connection to Lima, was indicted by an Allen County grand jury on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, a first-degree felony; corrupting another with drugs, a felony of the second degree; and trafficking in heroin, a fifth-degree felony. In January, Vanmeter entered a guilty plea to the involuntary manslaughter charge in exchange for the state’s dismissal of the remaining charges.
According to court documents, Vanmeter provided a white, powdery substance to Coleman at a residence at 960 St. Johns Ave., Lima. Police were dispatched to the residence at approximately 5 p.m. and found Coleman unconscious and without a pulse. He was transported to Lima Memorial Health System, where he was pronounced dead.
Vanmeter reportedly admitted to police that he gave the white powder, believed to be heroin, to Coleman prior to the Lima man’s death.
During Friday sentencing hearing, Vanmeter told Judge Jeffrey Reed that he was not a drug dealer, as prosecutors had alleged, but instead had come to Lima to buy drugs.
“This is where I buy my heroin; it’s cheap here in Lima,” he told the judge. Vanmeter said he has been addicted to opioids since the age of 14.
Coleman’s sister addressed the court prior to sentencing and asked Reed to show no mercy.
“Frank was my big brother that you took away from me and my family. I will never see or hear my brother’s voice again,” the woman said. “And for what? For this monster to take away his life?
“I hate you,” she told Vanmeter, “and I hope you never see the light of day again because that’s what you deserve.”
Vanmeter apologized to the family and said he has “asked the Lord for forgiveness.”
Reed imposed the maximum penalty allowed by law in sentencing Vanmeter to 11 years in prison.
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