Jury finds Lima man guilty of drug possession

LIMA — An Allen County jury found a Lima man guilty Wednesday of possession of cocaine after a two-day jury trial.

The jury also found the state proved that Lloyd Horton, 32, possessed between 27 and 100 grams of cocaine because Horton was found with about 27.51 grams of cocaine.

The court will conduct a pre-sentence investigation, and Judge Jeffrey Reed will sentence Horton on Sept. 9.

The prosecution wanted Horton’s bond to be revoked and taken into custody pending sentencing. Horton previously posted his $50,000 bond and was out of custody while the case went through the court. Reed said because a mandatory prison term is required for the charge, it could cause Horton to not appear for sentencing, so Reed modified the bond to $500,000.

Horton’s attorney, Kenneth Sturgill of the Allen County Public Defender’s Office, presented no witnesses or evidence but gave a closing statement that gave jurors some things to think about when looking at the evidence and witnesses the prosecution presented.

Sturgill said a report written by Special Agent Andrew Eilerman of the Northwest Ohio Safe Streets Task Force seven days after allegedly finding cocaine at Horton’s living space said the other officer who was present and taking pictures took pictures of the drugs where they were hidden. Eilerman testified he wrote that because that is usually the standard procedure, but it was not possible in that situation. Sturgill said the task force could have taken pictures of the drugs outside or at their office, but they didn’t.

Sturgill also referenced the inconsistencies in the time stamp on the sealed bag of drugs when it was taken to the task force’s office and the time stamp on the picture taken when they talked to Horton. The bag claims the drugs were seized at 2:03 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2022, but the picture’s time stamp reads 10:30 p.m. Sturgill argued these drugs could have come from the investigation at Christopher Clary’s house around 2 p.m. earlier in the day.

Another thing Sturgill mentioned was why the officer who seized the drugs took them to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation to be tested and took pictures on the scene did not testify. He said the jury couldn’t know what the drug was or how much it weighed because the task force didn’t have pictures of them testing it on-site and weighing it. He said the only evidence the state had of drugs being in the house was a picture of Horton’s arm with drywall dust on it from when he grabbed the drugs where they were stashed.

In the rebuttal, Assistant Prosecutor Joshua Carp said the surveillance on Clary’s house started at 2:40 p.m. and nothing was going on at 2:03 p.m. except GPS tracking Clary’s vehicle coming back from Michigan, so the time stamp on the drug bag was “clearly a typo.” He said the task force knew they were missing some of the cocaine after they raided Clary’s home, and they found it with Horton.

Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.