U.S. Attorney highlights essential public safety work continued during shutdown

CINCINNATI – United States Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II announced today numerous arrests, indictments, guilty pleas and sentencings that occurred during the recent 43-day lapse in government appropriations. The U.S. Attorney’s Office remained active during the shutdown, completing excepted duties related to national security, violations of federal law and essential public safety functions.

“The arrests and case proceedings detailed below provide just a small snapshot of the work continued by this office during the lapse in federal funding. The Southern District of Ohio is comprised of committed public servants dedicated to our office’s essential function of protecting public safety at all times. Our staff came to work each day and continued the mission of pursuing justice,” said U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II.

• On Oct. 2, three defendants from Colorado and Oregon were indicted by a federal grand jury in Columbus for allegedly operating an online drug trafficking business that shipped methamphetamine, cocaine, and a host of other controlled substances to buyers around the country. Jesse Wasson, 27, of Parker, Colorado, Amandra Heffelfinger, 40, and Jennifer Blake, 39, both of Lebanon, Oregon, were arrested on Oct. 6.
• In Dayton, on Oct. 2, the former commander of a local AMVETS Post pleaded guilty to embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars. Danny Dale Gordon, 49, of Kettering, defrauded AMVETS Post #24 in Dayton of approximately $622,000. He used the money at various local gambling casinos, for travel and hotel expenses, and frequenting a Dayton-area “gentlemen’s club.” He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and will be sentenced at a future date.
• Drey E. Lewis, 30, and Tyler J. Watkins, 35, of Middletown, were each sentenced to 10 years in prison for narcotics and money laundering crimes. Lewis, an inmate, coordinated drug activity from federal prison, including with a Mexican source of supply, and Watkins handled the drugs and money outside of prison.
• On Oct. 6, Timothy Farr, 43, of Dayton, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to armed robbery. Farr was indicted in January 2025 and charged with 12 armed robberies throughout southwest Ohio in December 2024. His plea agreement recommends a sentence of 15 to 25 years in prison.
• In Cincinnati, on Oct. 7, Darias Jackson, 35, of Cheviot, was sentenced in federal court to more than 13 years in prison. Jackson was a convicted felon and on supervised release for a federal drug-trafficking crime when he tried to murder his friend. Jackson shot the victim multiple times before leaving him in an apartment complex parking lot. Jackson tried to bribe the friend with $15,000 to recant his report to law enforcement that Jackson had shot him. The defendant obstructed justice and attempted to tamper with multiple witnesses.
• Eric L. Bell, 36, of Columbus, is a convicted felon who was on community control when he engaged in methamphetamine trafficking. He was sentenced in federal court in Columbus on Oct. 7 to more than 10 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine.
• Myron Nichols, 29, of Mt. Healthy, pleaded guilty in federal court in Cincinnati to fentanyl and firearms crimes. When stopped by Cincinnati police in November 2024 for multiple traffic violations, Nichols fled in the stolen vehicle he was driving and later fled on foot. Officers located fentanyl and a pistol in the vehicle.
• On Oct. 8, William Kisor, 57, of Columbus, pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbus to attempted coercion and enticement. Kisor had served more than 11 years in federal prison for child pornography crimes. After being released from prison, Kisor contacted the same online undercover agent with whom he communicated prior to his 2012 conviction, never realizing that the person was an agent of law enforcement. The undercover agent used the persona of an adult mother with minor daughters. The defendant contacted the agent in hopes of beginning an incestuous relationship with the “mother” and “daughters.”
• In federal court in Columbus on Oct. 8, a Morrow County man pleaded guilty to two armed bank robberies. James T. Scurlock, 45, of Cardington, admitted to robbing the same bank, Huntington Bank on Gemini Place, on two different occasions in March and May 2025. His plea agreement includes a sentence recommendation of 144 to 171 months in prison.
• Anicleto Olvera-Sanchez, 35, of Columbus, was the target of a drug trafficking investigation. When law enforcement officers searched his residence, they recovered fentanyl, methamphetamine and cocaine. A search of Olvera-Sanchez’s cell phone revealed evidence that he paid a teenage girl to create and send him sexually explicit videos and images. On Oct. 8, he pleaded guilty in federal court in Columbus to sexual exploitation of a minor, possession of child pornography, and possession with intent to distribute controlled substances. His plea agreement includes a recommended sentence of 188 to 206 months in prison.
• Ronald Allen Meadows, 54, of Chillicothe, was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Oct. 8 to 10 years in prison for drug and firearms crimes. Meadows was convicted in this district in 2017 for drug and firearm offenses and was on supervised release during the commission of his latest crimes.
• Federal agents arrested Rooble D. Adan, 31, of Minneapolis, on Oct. 10, on charges alleging he robbed a bank in Columbus on Oct. 8. According to the charging documents, at approximately 9am, Adan entered the Chase Bank on Cleveland Avenue and handed a financial advisor a note claiming Adan had placed bombs on himself and on the building. The note also indicated a link to foreign terrorists. Adan allegedly smacked a female teller in the face and took nearly $3,000 in cash from tellers’ drawers before fleeing the bank. Adan was arrested by Columbus police officers shortly after leaving the bank.
• On Oct. 20, Dwayne K. Funderburke, 41, of Columbus, appeared in federal court in Cincinnati on charges alleging he caused damage to federal property by breaking into the U.S. Courthouse in Columbus. Funderburke allegedly crashed his car into the pop-up vehicle barriers outside the Joseph P. Kinneary U.S. Courthouse on Marconi Blvd. on Sept. 22. After crashing, Funderburke allegedly broke into the courthouse garage, picked up a trash can and used it to smash a glass door leading into the courthouse. Officers located him in a lower garage stairwell and took him into local custody.
• Shaheed Russell, 29, of Columbus, was indicted by a federal grand jury in Columbus on Oct. 21. Surveillance video shows Russell allegedly fleeing the scene of a homicide near North High Street and East 4th Avenue. Russell is currently on supervised release following a conviction in the Southern District of Ohio for a federal firearm offense. He was charged on Oct. 21 with illegally possessing a firearm as a convicted felon and, if convicted, faces up to 15 years in prison.
• An indictment was filed in Cincinnati on Oct. 22 charging two defendants in a violent carjacking. Trevor J. Lancaster, 20, of Covington, Kentucky, and Deondre A. Burgin, 21, of Cincinnati, allegedly aided and abetted each other in the theft of a Mercedes-Benz in June 2025. The defendants allegedly used force, violence and intimidation – including the use of a firearm – resulting in serious bodily injury.
• In Cincinnati, on Oct. 22, a local man admitted to committing federal crimes when he defrauded victims out of more than $6.5 million through an online laundry and dry-cleaning pickup and delivery business. Benjamin Cantey, 41, of Cincinnati, pleaded guilty in federal court to wire fraud. Cantey lied about his business experience and prior business success to recruit and defraud investors. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly A. Norris announced this guilty plea.
• On Oct. 30, Ramiro Mendoza, 29, of Santa Maria, California, pleaded guilty in federal court in Cincinnati to participating in a drug trafficking conspiracy that involved more than 300 pounds of methamphetamine. In January 2025, Mendoza drove a box truck to pick up six pallets of narcotics that had been shipped to Middletown as purported paver stones imported from Mexico. Mendoza faces at least 10 years in prison.
• Four co-defendants pleaded guilty throughout the month of October to crimes committed as part of a multi-state narcotics conspiracy involving nearly $25 million in laundered drug proceeds. Charles Wooden, 47, of Pickerington; Courtney Musick, 38, of Pickerington; Alexis Ortega, 32, of Columbus; and Gregory Fountain, 30, of Columbus and Chicago, pleaded guilty to participating in fentanyl and cocaine trafficking conspiracies and money laundering. The narcotics conspiracy in this case is punishable by at least 10 years and up to life in prison. Money laundering carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.
• On Oct. 31, Ciriaco Garcia-Yerena, 46, an illegal alien from Mexico, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus to illegally reentering the United States after being convicted of an aggravated felony. Garcia-Yerena has a prior drug trafficking conviction in the Southern District of Ohio.
• Hussein Mohamed, 27, of Dublin, Ohio, was sentenced on Nov. 3 to more than 10 years in prison for committing three bank robberies in Columbus. During the third robbery, Mohamed possessed a firearm.
• On Nov. 4, Wilbert Romero-Natera, 25, of Columbus, was sentenced to 22 years in prison for committing a string of armed robberies of hotels in 2021. The defendant committed four robberies in Grove City, Columbus and Hebron, and brandished a firearm during three of those robberies.
• Also in Columbus, on Nov. 4, Mexican national Jose Adin Benjume-Gutierrez, 45, pleaded guilty to illegally reentering the United States and to distributing cocaine. Benjume-Gutierrez was arrested after fleeing from immigration officers. He faces up to 20 years in prison for the federal drug crime and up to two years in prison for the immigration offense.
• On Nov. 6, Jermaine Dorsey, 25, of Hamilton, was sentenced in federal court in Cincinnati to 96 months in prison for conspiring to and attempting to traffic firearms and illegally possessing machine guns. In a two-week timeframe in November 2024, Dorsey sold 15 firearms, two machinegun conversion devices and more than 150 rounds of ammunition.
• Eric Campbell, 48, of Groveport, was sentenced on Nov. 6 in Columbus to 15 years in prison for child pornography crimes. Campbell was on supervised release in this district for a prior conviction of coercion and enticement of a minor when he committed new offenses, namely, receiving and possessing child pornography.
• On Nov. 6, former Kroger head replenishment buyer, Mark Disbennett, 40, of West Chester, pleaded guilty to charges related to a kickback scheme that caused consumers to pay higher prices for produce. Disbennett disclosed to co-conspirator produce vendors Chris Farley, 66, of Happy Valley Oregon, and Craig Sono, 68, of Portland, Oregon, the highest price Kroger was willing to pay for certain produce. During the height of the pandemic, Disbennett received more than $147,000 from the co-conspirators.
• Katrina D. Favret, of Tennessee, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Columbus on Nov. 7 to her involvement with online groups dedicated to creating and distributing videos depicting acts of extreme violence and sexual abuse against monkeys.
• On Nov. 10, federal agents arrested a Dayton man on federal charges alleging he participated in a shootout on the University of Dayton campus on Nov. 1. Dylan Hiner, 19 is charged with illegally receiving a firearm while under indictment of another felony crime.
• Myron Billups, 46, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in federal court on Nov. 12 to 126 months in prison for possessing 26 pounds of methamphetamine. Law enforcement officers observed Billups receive a plastic storage bin and place it in the trunk of a car. Billups was stopped for a traffic violation and a K9 alerted to the vehicle, leading officers to discover approximately 26 pounds of methamphetamine in the storage bin.
• On Nov. 12, a criminal complaint was unsealed in Columbus that charges Hector Velandia-Anaya, 18, with forcibly assaulting federal officers and resisting arrest. The Venezualan national allegedly attempted to flee from immigration officials, dragging two officers with his vehicle while he began to drive away, before stopping.

Indictments and criminal complaints merely contain allegations, and defendants are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in a court of law.

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