A nine-man, three-woman jury began hearing testimony Tuesday in the trial of a 30-year-old Mishawaka man accused of fatally dealing drugs in the Kosciusko County Jail.
The 12-person, two-alternate jury was seated by 1:10 p.m. for the four-day trial of Christopher Aaron Susaraba in Kosciusko Circuit Court, being presided over by Judge Mike Reed. Kosciusko County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matt Buehler is arguing on behalf of the state, and Susaraba is being represented by Everett and Helen Newman.
Susaraba is charged with Level 1 felony dealing in a controlled substance resulting in death and Level 5 felony trafficking with an inmate after a fellow inmate, Dennis McCrory, died March 9, 2019, after he was found unresponsive in the jail’s K block. McCrory was pronounced dead due to acute drug intoxication, and toxicology results showed McCrory had methamphetamine and narcotic drugs in his system, according to court papers.
Several witnesses are alleged to have told police that Susaraba was dealing meth and heroin to inmates in exchange for money, and there was some discussion that the amount of drugs given to McCrory was too large and dangerous.
Buehler told jurors in opening statements that they will hear how McCrory’s girlfriend deposited $150 into Susaraba’s jail account just prior to McCrory’s overdose and accused Susaraba of smuggling, then peddling, the fatal dose of drugs inside the jail.
Everett Newman told jurors what they’re going to hear is inconsistent stories from the state’s inmate witnesses because “the inmates tend to drift with the wind, depending on their situation. The drugs in the jail do not point to Mr. Susaraba as the source.”
Newman further argued that Susaraba, who is from Mishawaka, was picked up by county police on a warrant Susaraba didn’t even know he had. When he was taken to KCJ, he was not expecting to go to jail that day. Newman’s point was that if Susaraba somehow concealed the drugs and got past the booking process of scans and body searches, then he would essentially have to defecate the drugs out but that his client was kept in a holding cell out of the K block for at least 40 hours.
“They did not come up with the right person,” Newman said of charging his client.
The state’s witnesses included the victim’s brother, Jeremy McCrory, who stared down Susaraba the entire time while on the stand and said his older brother was always in and out of trouble and was known to use drugs.
Next, Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Det. Sgt. Neil Likens took the stand and told jurors he was appointed as lead investigator on the case to try to determine how the drugs got into the jail in the first place. Likens said he interviewed approximately 27 inmates, and Susaraba became the state’s main suspect.
Then KCJ officer Mariah Rumpel testified and said she was working on March 9, 2019, and responded to McCrory who was unresponsive, without a pulse and surrounded by a pool of vomit and blood.
She tried to clear McCrory’s airway, while another jailer performed CPR, then?Lutheran EMS medics arrived and took over.
Rumple said the K block of the jail is for medium-security level inmates and has 12 rooms that house two to three people per cell.
She further testified that inmates try to pass contraband from block to block, whether through notes she called “kites” or hollowed-out books. Drugs have been found in the jail before, she said. She also said there has been an increase in the number of drugs found on people being booked into the jail that are being concealed.
Next, Curt Mosier, a paramedic with Lutheran EMS for the last decade, testified and said he responded to the jail and had to perform CPR on McCrory for 40 minutes before getting a pulse back. By the time they arrived at the Kosciusko Community Hospital emergency room, the pulse was gone.
“He was in full cardiac and respiratory arrest,” Mosier said, saying medics administered epinephrine and Narcan but that McCrory never regained consciousness.
Kosciusko County Coroner Tony Ciriello testified on behalf of the state and said he picked up blood and urine samples from KCH on behalf of the Allen County coroner and sent it to the laboratory in Indianapolis for testing.
McCrory died at Lutheran Hospital in Fort Wayne, so the Allen County Coroner’s Office investigates the cause of death; prosecutors in the county where the incident occurred prosecute the crime. Ciriello’s involvement ended there, and so did court for the day.
The state will continue calling witnesses at 8:30 a.m. today. Susaraba has been held at the county jail since his arrest.
