Woman sentenced for heroin death
Jamie N. Maynard thought she was doing a fellow heroin addict a favor.
Maynard, 27, met Courtney Penix, 24, in the Westpointe Plaza Shopping Center parking lot on the Far West Side on April 27, 2015, to sell her a dose. Penix said she was struggling with withdrawal symptoms.
“I thought at the time I was helping Courtney because she kept telling me she was sick,” Maynard said Thursday in a Franklin County courtroom.
Penix went across the street to a Meijer store restroom and injected the heroin. She died there about an hour later.
“I knew I was wrong (to supply the drug), but for whatever reason, I still handed it to her,” Maynard said, crying as she read her statement. “I will never forgive myself for that, ever. Words cannot describe how sorry I am.”
Maynard delivered her remarks before Common Pleas Judge Chris Brown sentenced her to four years and 11 months in prison. She will be eligible to apply for early release after serving six months.
The sentence was recommended by assistant prosecutors Carol Harmon and Jamie Sacksteder and defense attorney Clayton Lopez in a plea agreement. Maynard, of London in Madison County, pleaded guilty in September to one count of involuntary manslaughter and one count of trafficking in heroin.
“I don’t doubt that you never meant to cause (the death),” the judge told her. “You provided her with the means, knowing she was sick, and there’s a price to pay for that.”
Franklin County prosecutors and law enforcement agencies have made it a policy to seek involuntary manslaughter charges against those who supply drugs that result in fatal overdoses.
Maynard called Penix “a beautiful person” with whom she had a lot in common.
“We both came from great families, had big hearts and outgoing personalities, and both of us hated ourselves for allowing heroin to control our lives,” she said.
Maynard, a mother of three, including a newborn, said she was introduced to heroin at the age of 20 by her thenhusband. “Unfortunately, after that, my life has never been the same.”
She directed much of her statement to Penix’s parents, who were in the courtroom.
“I will never come to terms with what happened on that day, and I’m sure you’ll never be able to either,” she said. “But I hope that one day you’ll find it in your hearts to forgive me.
“If you can’t, I’ll understand, because I’m not sure I will be able to forgive myself.”