Shad Martin, right, appears with his defense attorney Rolf Baumgartel, left, in Washington County Common Pleas Court Tuesday for sentencing. (Photo by Janelle Patterson)

MARIETTA — The former executive director of the Latrobe Street Mission in Parkersburg explained Tuesday the depth of his despair at relapsing into old drug habits before being sentenced in Washington County Common Pleas Court to prison.

Shad Martin, 39, of 1359 Elizabeth Pike, Mineral Wells, was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday for smuggling drugs into the Washington County Jail last May. But Washington County Assistant Prosecutor Kelly Hamilton said he will not oppose judicial release for Martin after 18 months served.

The Latrobe Street Mission, originally founded by Martin and his wife, is an evening homeless shelter run by volunteers to serve the homeless population in the Mid-Ohio Valley. The mission provides emergency housing, meals and clothing and addiction recovery services.

Martin pleaded guilty to three counts of illegal conveyance, all third-degree felonies, and one count of possession of criminal tools, a fifth-degree felony, on March 16.

A count of possession of heroin was dropped by the prosecution per the plea agreement and the maximum sentence Martin could have faced was 10 years in prison.

“This is truly the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. The last year has given me a lot of time to think. I’ve played this over and over, every choice, every decision, everything that’s led me to this situation I’m in … I’ve prayed every night that I’d wake up and it would be different. I’ve prayed that I could take things back … I’ve let a lot of people down. And I am sorry,” said Martin as he choked back tears.

Martin said in late 2013 he relapsed after being clean for four years.

He was originally arrested Dec. 20, 2014, and charged with a fourth-degree felony charge of trafficking in drugs and possession of drugs after the Major Crimes Task Force found six bags of marijuana individually packaged, doses of LSD, “molly” and steroids.

At the time of his arrest, Martin said, he was working for Solvay just outside Marietta.

“I was being drug tested every month for my job; blood, hair and urine all the way up until two weeks before I got arrested and every one of these were clean,” he said.

Martin gestured to a stack of drug tests on the desk in front of him.

“I was going to meetings, I was doing my outpatient treatment, I was doing everything I needed to do,” he said.

After arrest, indictment and conviction, Martin was sentenced to serve weekends in the Washington County Jail. But on May 18, 2016, he chose to smuggle heroin, marijuana and pills into the jail by storing the drugs in a cigar tube in a body cavity, officials said.

Martin said Tuesday that he was threatened into conveying the drugs. His co-defendant Ashley McPherson is awaiting a jury trial scheduled for June for her alleged part in the conveyance scheme.

“I was put in a situation in jail and made a choice I thought I needed to do to protect my family. My family was being threatened, I was being threatened. I don’t know if you’ve seen the video, but I got the snot beaten out of me,” said Martin to Washington County Common Pleas Judge Mark Kerenyi Tuesday.

Video records from the Washington County Jail show that on May 17, federal prisoners Raheem Cuffee and Kalif Briggs initiated a physical altercation with Martin while he was on the phone in the jail’s ‘E’ dorm. Cuffee and Briggs have since been released into U.S. Marshal Service custody for transport to federal prison for heroin trafficking convictions.

Martin said the pair beat him to get him to smuggle more drugs into the jail and threatened the safety of his family.

He said he doesn’t regret protecting his family but takes responsibility for his actions.

“In the end this is my fault because I put my family in that situation,” he said. “I should have never been doing what I was doing in the first place to end up in jail.”

Kerenyi said he was glad to hear of Martin’s feelings.

“Sometimes it takes hitting rock bottom to change,” said Kerenyi. “Hopefully this is rock bottom for you.”

Martin said he plans to take every class available in prison and to apply for judicial release well before the 18 months noted by Hamilton.

“If he continues to come back clean (with intermittent drug tests in prison) I have no problem with him getting out earlier,” added Hamilton after the hearing.

Washington County Sheriff Larry Mincks said the case was the final straw that pushed his office to join forces with the Washington County commissioners and Prosecutor’s Office to pull funds for a full body scanner purchase for the jail.

“We have it ordered now and we’re hoping it will arrive in 30 days or so,” said Mincks. “It’s almost daily that people try to sneak things through but we’re trying to prevent deaths from overdose and weapons from getting into our facility.”

Mincks said the approximate cost of the scanner came in at $128,000 with an additional $8,000 per year maintenance charge.