An accused large-scale heroin trafficker has been sentenced to 17 years in prison for holding two people at gunpoint in Wayne County and beating one of them with a baseball bat.
A jury convicted Richard Lawless, 49, of kidnapping, abduction and felonious assault on Tuesday in Wayne County Common Pleas Court. Lawless also faces drug trafficking charges in Ashland County that resulted after he was arrested in Coventry Township last year. He’s accused of involvement in a multi-county drug ring.
According to the Medina County Sheriff’s Office, which assisted in the investigation, Lawless bound the man in duct tape last year before beating him. He became a fugitive from the law in the summer and was arrested in November alongside several co-defendants.
Gary Hubbard, commander of the Medina County Task Force, described Lawless in November as a “menace to the area for many years.”