Drugsmuggling granny gets three years
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53-year-old grandmother was sentenced to three years in prison Thursday on her third drug distribution conviction after sneaking Suboxone to her incarcerated son at the State Correctional Institution in Chester.
Janette Ortiz, of the 2800 block of North Third Street in Philadelphia, was convicted on charges of drug distribution, contraband and criminal use of a communication facility last month following a jury trial before Delaware County Common Pleas Court Judge John Capuzzi. The jury deliberated less than 90 minutes before rendering a verdict.
Guards at the prison conducted a cell search Feb.
9, 2017, and discovered 13 strips of Suboxone hidden inside headphones belonging to Ortiz’s son, Julio Ortiz, according to a release from Delaware County District Attorney Katayoun Copeland.
The Pennsylvania Department of Corrections conducted an investigation and determined Janette Ortiz delivered 20 strips of Suboxone, a Schedule III drug used to treat opioid addiction, to her son during a visit at the prison Feb.
5, 2017.
Julio Ortiz was serving a sentence for possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.
Julio Ortiz admitted that he and his mother worked together to smuggle the contraband into the prison so that he could sell it to other inmates for a profit.
She surreptitiously handed the package to Julio Ortiz, who swallowed it and later regurgitated it in his cell, according to the release. Julio Ortiz sold some of the Suboxone to other inmates at $50 for a full strip or $10 apiece. He was paid by friends and family members of the inmates and the funds were transferred to his mother, according to the release.
Julio Ortiz was previously sentenced to 23 months with two years of probation after pleading guilty to drug possession charges and has since been transferred to SCI Smithfield.
Defense attorney Kenneth Mark Sexton said at sentencing Thursday that Janette Ortiz is remorseful and has accepted responsibility for her crime. Though the contraband charge carries a two-year mandatory minimum, he was seeking a concurrent sentence on the other two charges.
Janette Ortiz also addressed the judge through an interpreter and indicated she was pressured by her son to deliver the drugs to him in prison.
“I regret this fully, your honor,” she said. “My family is very upset with me for what I have done.”
Assistant District Attorney Michael Hill argued for consecutive sentences, noting this is Ortiz’s third drug delivery charge and that phone conversations between the mother and son indicated this was an ongoing operation, not just a one-time occurrence.
“She’s preying on the worst addiction we have in the United States of America right now,” he said. “She has not accepted one bit of responsibility.”
Capuzzi read off Ortiz’s two prior convictions in 1990 and 2002, indicating she had failed to learn from
past mistakes.
“Not only did you prey upon the other prisoners in that therapeutic community, you placed the lives of the guards, the corrections officers, in jeopardy,” he said. “I can’t excuse
any of your behavior. I don’t see any remorse. What I do see is a regret that you’re going to spend a long time in the state prison system.”
The judge gave Ortiz an additional one to two years’ incarceration on top of the two-year mandatory minimum, as well as four years of consecutive probation, and ordered that she not be released until she completes her minimum sentence.