Woman Gets Two-Year Sentence For Drug Trafficking With Inmate
By Liz Shepherd
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — A Claypool woman will serve two years in jail after trafficking drugs into the Kosciusko County Jail.
Heather R. Bentley, 36, 9185 W. 900S, Claypool, was charged with two counts of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance, both level 5 felonies. A trafficking with an inmate charge was dismissed as part of a plea agreement.
Bentley was sentenced in Kosciusko Circuit Court on Monday, July 18.
On Dec. 7, 2021, officers with the NET43 Drug Task Force met with the KCJ commander and a sheriff’s deputy. The deputy provided one of the officers with two letters that had been sent to inmates at KCJ. The letters were legal mail.
According to court documents, jail officers felt something in the letters and called the two attorneys marked on the return addresses. Both attorneys said the return address labels were not their return labels.
Upon opening the letters, officers found drugs were inside. The first envelope contained about 1.5 grams of a schedule III controlled substance. The second letter contained what appeared to be crushed pills, weighing 1.6 grams.
A United States Post Office investigator tracked the stamps on the envelope. He found the account used to purchase the stamps on the two letters was set up by Bentley. The two letters were mailed on Dec. 3, 2021.
One of the NET43 officers was able to obtain recordings of an inmate, Nickolus G. Toepfer, Kokomo, explaining to Bentley how to bring drugs into the jail by using legal mail. On Oct. 22, 2021, Bentley told Toepfer that she had mailed the letters.
Officers spoke with Bentley on Dec. 22, 2021. She admitted that Toepfer originally brought up the idea of sending drugs to him at the jail in October 2021. Bentley said she sent a total of three items to Toepfer at KCJ while using other inmates’ names.
Bentley also said she had additional suboxone strips and other pills at her home that she planned to mail to inmates at KCJ. That same day, Bentley took officers to her home and gave them two suboxone strips and 13 pills identified as a schedule III controlled substance.
Toepfer has a pretrial conference for this case at 3 p.m. Aug. 15.
During court proceedings, Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Brad Voelz described the case as “not a run-of-the-mill dealing case.”
“The circumstances and location of this are of the most concern to us,” said Voelz. “That creates a hazard to everyone there, the inmates, the officers.”
Defense Attorney Jay Rigdon said that Bentley was truly regretful for what she did and was at low-risk to reoffend.
Bentley described the situation as being manipulated by Toepfer to attempt to bring drugs into the jail.
“I’m truly sorry for my actions,” said Bentley. “I would never do any of that on my own.”
Judge Reed mentioned Bentley going to a rehabilitation center and obtaining suboxone under false pretenses to provide to Toepfer.
“I don’t want to incarcerate you but I must,” said Judge Reed.
For each count of dealing in a schedule III controlled substance, Judge Reed sentenced Bentley to three years in the Kosciusko County Jail. Both counts were ordered to be served concurrently, or at the same time. The last year of Bentley’s three-year sentence was suspended on probation. Judge Reed also said he had no objection to Bentley serving the sentence through work release in the future; Bentley is currently denied for participation in the work release program.
In total, Bentley received a three-year sentence, with two years executed at KCJ and one year on probation.