30-04-2025
Controlled drug buys detailed in Metzger trial
Apr. 29—LIMA — Jurors in an Allen County courtroom heard about a series of controlled drug buys orchestrated by the West Central Ohio Crime Task Force and Northwest Ohio Safe Streets Task Force in the trial of Shawn Metzger.
Metzger, 38, is charged with three counts of aggravated drug trafficking, each as second-degree felonies, and a single first-degree felony count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity for his alleged role in the sale of suspected methamphetamine on Feb. 22 and Feb. 27, 2024.
Over the course of two days in Allen County Common Pleas Court, lead investigator Derek Dennis described how the task force recruited confidential informants who orchestrated the sale of suspected methamphetamine from Metzger and two co-defendants at gas stations near Interstate 75 on Feb. 22, 2024.
The informants include a woman who cooperated in exchange for consideration from prosecutors in Montgomery County, where the woman was discovered with a large quantity of suspected methamphetamine months earlier, and an informant paid by the task force for their cooperation.
Jurors heard testimony from Dennis and the first informant when the trial began Monday afternoon.
Dennis and the informant each testified Monday that the informant picked up co-defendant Mark Ruvoldt from Harrod to purchase two ounces of methamphetamine from Metzger in the parking lot of the Shawnee Fuel Stop on Feb. 22, where Metzger was waiting in a black pickup truck.
Testimony continued Tuesday from Dennis, as well as task force members who surveilled the gas stations and a forensic analyst from the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation who tested drug samples for methamphetamine.
Jurors witnessed photographs taken by task force members who surveilled the Feb. 22 sales, as well as screenshots from a Facebook messenger conversation exchanged between one of the confidential informants and co-defendant Paige Snider.
The photographs depict the same black pickup truck at both the Shawnee Fuel Station and Marathon gas station. Task force members identified Metzger as the driver of the truck.
Dennis testified Tuesday that a second confidential informant paid by the task force arranged the second controlled drug buy at the Marathon gas station on St. Johns Avenue and Hanthorn Road later the same day on Feb. 22, 2024.
This time task force members observed Snider, who is expected to testify this week, exit the truck to sell half an ounce of suspected methamphetamine to the confidential informant parked at a neighboring fuel pump, according to testimony from several task force members.
Dennis explained for jurors how the task force supervises controlled drug buys: officers track the serial numbers on cash provided to informants; they follow and search informants for contraband before and after each purchase; and equip informants with a wire or recording device to surveil conversations.
Defense counsel Kenneth Rexford questioned the trustworthiness of those informants as he cross-examined Dennis both days, and questioned forensic analyst Kelsie Pestello at length Tuesday about her knowledge of the tests used to determine the presence of methamphetamine in evidence the task force submitted to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation.
Testimony will resume Wednesday in Allen County Common Pleas Court.
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