COURT UPDATES: Manslaughter, arson, cocaine trafficking, robbery
NEW PHILADELPHIA – There have been developments in several previously reported on criminal cases in Tuscarawas County Common Pleas Court.
ACCUSED DRUG DEALER CHARGED WITH MANSLAUGHTER SENTEND TO 5-7 ½ YEARS
THOMAS RITCHIE (TCSO)
An accused drug dealer will spend five to seven and a half years in prison for providing the drugs that contributed to the overdose death of a New Philadelphia teen.
Thomas Ritchie, 24, in May pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and drug charges related to the 2025 death of a 17-year-old New Philadelphia and Buckeye Career Center student. Tuscarawas County Sheriff Detective and LEAD Drug Task Force Commander Cole Morris says Ritchie sold cocaine and psychedelic mushrooms to the teen in March of last year. Later, the sheriff’s office responded to a report of an overdose at a party attended by many teenagers in Franklin Township. Morris says the teen died at Akron Children’s Hospital a couple of days later.
Judge Michael Ernest on June 16 sentenced Ritchie to prison and ordered him to pay over $17,000 in restitution to the victim’s family.
Ritchie is in the Tuscarawas County Jail awaiting transfer to a correctional facility.
EVICTED RESIDENT SENTENCED TO PRISON FOR BURNING DOWN FORMER HOME
CHANCE CAWLEY (TCSO)
The evicted trailer park resident who returned to burn down his former home and the one next to it will spend three to four and half years in jail.
Chance Cawley, 24, in October set fire to a vacant mobile home in the 300 block of 11th Street NW. The flames spread to both neighboring homes, destroying one of those, too. Police say nobody was hurt.
After initially pleading not guilty to a December indictment, Cawley in April pleaded guilty to reduced charges including aggravated arson, arson and breaking and entering.
He was sentenced earlier this month to prison and ordered to pay $4,400 dollars in restitution to two victims. Cawley is in the Tuscarawas County jail to be transported to an Ohio correctional facility.
MAN ACCUSED OF SELLING DRUGS NEAR SCHOOL PLEADS GUILTY
CULLEN BROGAN (TCSO)
Cullen Brogan, 27, of Dover was initially indicted in January on five counts, including a first-degree felony possession of cocaine charge. Tuscarawas County Sheriff Detective and LEAD Drug Task Force Commander Cole Morris said a sting operation caught Brogan selling drugs within 1,000 feet of Dover Avenue Elementary School.
Supreme Court appointed Judge Edward O’Farrell this week approved a settlement agreement that reduced the first-degree felony charge and removed any mandatory prison sentence. The potential sentences on the five reduced charges range from six to 36 months. Those charges include third- and fourth-degree felony trafficking and possession of cocaine charges.
Brogan will be sentenced on July 28.
GUILTY PLEA IN DRUG CASE THAT FOLLOWED TRAFFIC STOP IN UHRICHSVILLE
ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ (TCSO)
Roberto Rodriquez, 38, of Canton reached a plea agreement earlier this month in Judge Michael Ernest’s courtroom.
The first-degree felony counts of possession of cocaine and trafficking in cocaine against him were not reduced, and he faces mandatory prison sentences on both charges that could range from 3 to 16 and a half years in prison.
Uhrichsville Police arrested Rodriquez in October after a traffic stop where they discovered drugs, cash, scales, cell phones and an illegally-possessed gun. Rodriguez is scheduled to be sentenced on July 28.
ICE TARGET HEADED TO PRISON AFTER ROBBING HISPANIC STORE
ERICK CARRION-PADILLA (TCSO)
A man previously wanted by ICE has been sentenced to four to six years in an Ohio prison for robbing a teenage clerk at a Hispanic store in Dover in October.
Erick Carrion Padilla, 21, changed his plea to guilty in April on charges of aggravated robbery, robbery and theft. He was sentenced June 16.
Authorities said he used a knife to rob the store and its 17-year-old clerk of more than $1,600 in cash and a $265 check.
Carrion Padilla has been back-and-forth between jails in Tuscarawas County and Mahoning County, where he was being held on federal charges. An ICE hold order had been in place when Carrion Padilla was indicted in January. It was not immediately clear how that was resolved.
Carrion Padilla is in the Tuscarawas County jail until he is transferred to the custody of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.