Talbert pleaded guilty to one felony count of involuntary manslaughter in the May 16, 2023, death of inmate Joshua Gunn.
Credit: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction
Credit: Ohio Department of Rehabilitation & Correction
He, along with Lindsey Brooke Lucas, 40, of Moraine and Ryeheim Mekhi Isaiah Warren, 21, of Mt. Healthy in suburban Cincinnati, were each indicted in October 2024 with illegal conveyance of drugs of abuse onto the grounds of a specified governmental facility and trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound. In addition to involuntary manslaughter, Talbert was indicted on charges of corrupting another with drugs and possession of a fentanyl-related compound.
Talbert and Lucas are accused of bringing fentanyl into the prison with help from Warren. Lucas formerly worked at the prison and is believed to have smuggled drugs into the prison by hiding them in her lunchbox, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said.
She was an Amarak employee who was hired in April 2023 and terminated on June 22, 2023, according to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.
Talbert reportedly “furnished those drugs to another inmate who died from ingesting those drugs,” the grand jury report read.
Peeler ordered Talbert’s prison term to be served consecutively to a 7-year term he began serving in 2018 for felonious assault and carrying concealed weapon convictions out of Hamilton County.
The other charges against Talbert were dismissed as part of his plea.
Talbert is incarcerated in the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. He will be eligible for parole in October 2030, according to ODRC records.
Warren is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 30 following a change of plea, and Lucas is scheduled to go to trial Oct. 2, according to court records.
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