Muskingum County man sentenced to prison on first-degree felony meth trafficking charges
A Frazeysburg man will be serving time in prison for trafficking more than two pounds of methamphetamine and other drugs.
Skyler D. Worline, 29, of Frazeysburg, appeared in Muskingum County Court of Common Pleas recently for sentencing. Judge Kelly Cottrill sentenced Worline to the minimum possible sentence of 11 years in prison for his crimes. He faced up a potential indefinite term of up to 38 and a half years. The State argued for a 20-year sentence.
Muskingum County Assistant Prosecutor John Litle, who facilitated the interagency prosecution strategy on the case, says he is disappointed in the outcome.
“Our office argued that 20 years in prison was the minimum appropriate sentence for these three separate crimes,” Litle said. “It is difficult to understand, and even more difficult to explain to our law enforcement partners and community members, how an individual who was caught with the maximum classified quantity of multiple different drugs, on three separate occasions, in three different counties, could end up with a single, minimum sentence.”
Worline previously pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated trafficking of methamphetamine, all felonies of the first degree.
On April 29, Frazeysburg law enforcement officers observed stopped Worline for speeding down the road. Officers pulled Worline over. Worline told officers he was headed to Columbus.
During the stop, the officer noticed a can of butane, used in the production of methamphetamine, on the floor of the car. The officer called for backup to help search the vehicle.
During the search, the K-9 unit indicated smelling drugs in the car.
The officer searched the car and found methamphetamine pipes, wrapped syringes and needles.
Worline admitted to officers that there was almost one pound of methamphetamine in the car, stored in a backpack in the back seat.
In total, law enforcement found about 1.2 kilograms, or 2.6 pounds of methamphetamine, 119 grams of cocaine powder, 27 grams of crack cocaine and 18 grams of unknown pills.
Worline was arrested and taken to jail, where he told law enforcement about his plan to drive to Columbus to sell the drugs. Worline said he had been planning on “selling two pounds” that day.
A search of Worline’s Frazeysburg residence revealed materials used for the production of crack cocaine, as well as assorted other drug paraphernalia and bags full of money.
Local investigators, led by the Central Ohio Drug Enforcement Task Force out of Licking County quickly linked Worline’s case to investigations going on out of both New Albany and Dublin, where he had been caught with similar quantities of drugs.
Both Franklin County investigations were wrapped into a single pattern of corrupt activity, and Muskingum County agreed to take on the entire prosecution, in the hopes of achieving a lengthy prison sentence commensurate with the amount of drugs he had been trafficking across multiple counties.
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