Hillsboro woman sentenced to prison for meth possession, failure to appear
A Hillsboro woman was sentenced to prison last week on charges in two different Highland County Common Pleas Court cases.
As previously reported, Shawna Willey, 30, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in January on one count of aggravated possession of methamphetamine, a fifth-degree felony.
In that case, it was alleged that in September 2023, a Highland County Sheriff’s deputy made a stop on a suspicious vehicle in the New Market area. Willey, the passenger, was allegedly found to have a “crystal-like substance” in her purse that later tested positive for meth.
According to court records, Willey was scheduled for an intervention in lieu of conviction plea hearing in March 2024, but allegedly failed to appear. That led to a second charge of charged with failure to appear, a fourth-degree felony, during the April grand jury session.
Willey pleaded guilty to both charges July 19. Although the plea agreement recommended community control and substance abuse treatment, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss sentenced Willey to a total of 25 months in prison Aug. 22, although the sentences are concurrent, for a total of 17 months to be served.
“You were in court July 17, and I ordered you to report to the probation department to be drug tested,” Coss told Willey. “You did not do that. Why?”
Willey told the judge that she “would have failed” the test.
“Well, yeah, we knew that,” Coss said. “I think you told me you wouldn’t, didn’t you? So you knew it would prove you to be a liar, right?
“Then you didn’t report back for your interview. You’ve not been interviewed, have you? You haven’t been reporting on pretrial supervision like you’re supposed to, have you? And yet you want me to put you on community control or probation, which requires you to go to drug treatment. It requires you to report, and yet you’ve done none of those things.”
Coss sentenced Willey to 17 months on the failure to appear charge, concurrent to eight months on the drug possession charge. She had a total of 25 days of jail time credit, including 22 days on the failure to appear charge and three days in the drug case.
“You’ve taken no steps to help yourself, have you?” Coss asked. “And yet, you want someone to do it for you. That’s what it boils down to. The problem is if you want help, you have to help yourself. No one can help you become clean. You have to do it.
“You’ve shown me the exact opposite — that you’re not willing to even go down to the probation department, as ordered by the court, and you already have a failure to appear. You’ve done nothing.
“The only thing can give you credit for is you showed up here today, and everyone in this room, other than you and your family that brought you here, are surprised,” Coss continued.
The judge concluded that for Willey to “fix your problem … it’s going to take something to get your attention,” before handing down the prison sentences.
“You’re not paying attention, so I’ve got to get your attention,” Coss said.
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