Ohio man to serve 10 years in prison for trafficking cocaine and fentanyl

MUSKINGUM COUNTY, Ohio — A Zanesville man was sentenced to prison for trafficking cocaine and fentanyl.

According to the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office, Eric J. Hayes, age 34, of Zanesville, appeared in Muskingum County Court of Common Pleas on August 14. Judge Kelly Cottrill sentenced Hayes to serve ten years in prison for his crimes.

On June 25, officials say, Hayes pleaded guilty to felony illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto grounds of a specified governmental facility, trafficking in cocaine with firearm and forfeiture of property specifications, and trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound with firearm and forfeiture of property specifications.

On February 6, Zanesville Police Department Patrolman Travis Stilwell pulled Hayes over for a traffic violation, after seeing him at a “trap house,” or a house out of which a drug dealer is known to sell drugs.

During the stop, Stillwell observed Hayes and the vehicle’s passenger conceal objects, and reach in and out of the car’s center console.

Officials say when Stillwell knocked on the window of the car to inform the passengers he could see what they were doing, he spotted the handle of a firearm in the passenger’s pants.

With Hayes’ consent, officers searched him and his vehicle. About $1,000 in currency was found on Hayes, and marijuana and scales were found in his vehicle.

The officer also smelled burned marijuana in the vehicle. According to officials, it is illegal to consume marijuana in a vehicle under any circumstances, so the investigation proceeded further.

The passenger was arrested for improper handling of a firearm and taken to jail.

At the jail, officials say she handed over three bags of suspected drugs that she had hidden for Hayes: two bags containing a blue rock-like substance, and a bag with two smaller baggies inside, each containing a white substance.

Hayes was also arrested and taken to jail. He denied having any drugs, but officers found seven strips of suboxone—a drug of abuse marketed by pharmaceutical companies as an alternative to opiates—in his wallet.

Officials say the substances carried by the passenger in his car were tested. The blue substance was determined to be fentanyl, of which Hayes had more than 30 grams. The white substance was determined to be cocaine.

Muskingum County Assistant Prosecutor John Litle says Hayes has a history of crime and will be going back to prison.

“This isn’t the first time we’ve dealt with Mr. Hayes,” Litle said. “He didn’t get the point with his last prison stint so maybe this decade in prison will help him hear the message that drug dealing is not welcome in this county. His time is mandatory, so he’ll be serving every single day.”

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