Cocaine dealer gets three years in prison
By KRISTINA SMITH
Staff writer

PORT CLINTON -- A major cocaine dealer in Port Clinton and Put-in-Bay was emotionless Thursday as a judge ordered him to spend three years in prison.

Robert Fleming, 25, last-known of 221 Madison St., is not eligible for parole while serving the sentence on one felony count of trafficking in cocaine, Judge Paul Moon said during the hearing in Ottawa County Common Pleas Court. He pleaded guilty to the charge.

"This is tragic," Moon told Fleming, who has quoted Latin to Moon. "You're very bright."
The minimum sentence would have been one year and the maximum seven.

Since his arrest, Fleming has attended drug and alcohol counseling, said his attorney, Terry Dunn of Port Clinton. He also has a steady job at Pizza House in Port Clinton, and his boss wrote a glowing letter to the court praising his work, Moon said.

Pizza House plans to have a job ready for him when he leaves prison, Fleming told Moon.

"We're glad he got the three years," Ottawa County Assistant Prosecutor Lorrain Croy said. "Sometimes we forget that when we have a sentencing, it's not just for rehabilitation but for punishment."

Fleming was convicted in Michigan of selling marijuana and violated his parole there, Moon said.

During the hearing, Fleming made eye contact with two co-workers who came to support him but did not speak to them or his mother as a sheriff's deputy cuffed him and led him to jail. A woman co-worker shed tears.

Fleming appeared confident when speaking with Moon.

"This makes me really happy to pronounce my guilt, he said. "I was on a bad road. I sold to support my habit."

"I'm ready to pay for it."

His former roommate at Waterfront Condominiums on Lakeshore Drive, David Schroeder, 21, is serving a sentence of four years probation on a drug-related charge. He was convicted last year."

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