Kyle Smith was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison Wednesday for drug charges.
Charlotte Caldwell | The Lima News
LIMA — A Lima man was sentenced to a minimum of 20 years in prison Wednesday in the Allen County Common Pleas Court for possession of a fentanyl-related compound, engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, the illegal manufacture of drugs, aggravated possession of drugs and having weapons under disability.
The charges also had a total of $25,000 in fines attached, but Judge Terri Kohlrieser waived the fines because Kyle Smith couldn’t pay them.
The prosecution wanted Smith to get 20 years minimum in prison, and Chief Assistant Prosecutor Kyle Thines said Smith has violent tendencies because at the bottom of one of the ledgers showing who owed him money, Smith wrote a paragraph about the people owing “blood debts.” Thines also said it was not a typical drug user case because Smith was running a business and “kept books to keep track of his bottom line.”
Assistant Public Defender Stephen Chamberlain said Smith has no power or authority in the drug world, and he is not rich from selling drugs. He said the only reason Smith was investigated was because there was a murder in the trailer park Smith where lives, and investigators were interviewing people about it. He said 20 years was too much and cited a recent assault case and another more serious drug case where 12 years were given to each.
Smith apologized for his actions and said he understood he needed to be punished. He said he never acted on the “blood debts” comment; he was just mad about not being paid.
Kohlrieser agreed Smith wasn’t violent in this instance and wasn’t high on the drug chain but also wasn’t just a drug user who occasionally sells some drugs. She mentioned the dangers of fentanyl and methamphetamine, which Smith was found with, adding she’s seen how methamphetamine is made and “that is literally putting poison in a person’s body.”
“You struck me as someone who was loving playing the game,” Kohlrieser said to Smith regarding text messages shown in Smith’s jury trial.
When Kohlrieser sentenced Smith to probation in 2020 for previous drug charges, she wrote “he’s had enough passes” due to Smith not complying with previous sentencing, such as when he was kicked out of the WORTH Center.
