Woman claims sold drugs to help kids; gets 11-year sentence

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio woman who claims the reason she sold drugs was to raise money to buy a farm and send her five children to college has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

The Zanesville Times Recorder reports 41-year-old Janet Gartner’s defense attorney, Nicole Churchill, said Monday before sentencing in Muskingum County that Gartner wanted to sell the drugs in her possession and then go back to “cleaning rich people’s toilets.”

Gartner pleaded guilty before sentencing to drug trafficking and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.

Authorities say investigators seized $160,000 in cash, 5 pounds (2.3 kilograms) of methamphetamine, 50 pounds (22.7 kilograms) of marijuana and other drugs during a search of her farm. She lived there with a co-defendant who is awaiting trial next month.