A Common Pleas Court jury found a Butler man guilty Wednesday of felony charges filed by county detectives for smuggling Suboxone into the county prison in his prosthetic leg and prison-issued wheelchair.

The jury of seven men and five women found David Kenneth Arnold, 42, guilty of contraband and possession of a controlled substance by an inmate after deliberating for about an hour in the one-day trial.

Judge Timothy F. McCune scheduled sentencing for Oct. 21 and allowed Arnold to remain free on $25,000 bail. He ordered a pre-sentence investigation to be conducted before the sentencing.

Arnold, who is represented by county public defenders Joseph Smith and Kimberly Hudak, testified that he is a recovering addict and has a prescription for Suboxone.

In the days before he said he reported to his probation officer on Jan. 22, 2020, Arnold said Children and Youth Services took custody of his baby son after his girlfriend, with whom he had the child, failed a drug test while he was in ACMH Hospital.

He said he also learned that his girlfriend died of a drug overdose while he was in the hospital.

On Jan. 19, Arnold said he had planned to go to Butler Memorial Hospital, but changed his mind. In preparation for that visit, he said he took a Suboxone tablet from his mother and put it in the sock he wore over the foot of his prosthetic leg.

He said some of his Suboxone prescription was missing from his home and he had taken what was left.

When he arrived at the probation office, he was arrested on a warrant for missing a mandatory drug and alcohol counseling session while he was in the hospital.

In the county prison, corrections officers found the tablet during a search, he said.

Then, during a routine cell search on Jan. 27, officers found a hole in the seat of his prison-issued wheelchair. The officers found 11 strips of Suboxone film in the seat.

Arnold said the tablet was his and he forgot that he put it in his prosthetic leg, but he didn't smuggle in the Suboxone strips.

“This case is about keeping prisons safe,” Robert Zanella Jr., assistant district attorney, said in his opening statement.

Corrections officer David Summerville testified that he found the tablet wrapped in paper in Arnold's prosthetic leg during a search conducted when he was brought to the prison.

He said Arnold told him the tablet was Suboxone and he forgot that he put the tablet there.

Corrections officer Cody McClelland said he found the hole in the wheelchair seat during a routine inspection of Arnold's single-inmate cell.

Arnold returned to the cell after taking a shower while his cell was being searched, McClelland said.

McClelland said Arnold seemed agitated because he was discarding the food that Arnold had in his cell, but Arnold's reaction prompted McClelland's partner, officer Tyler Wingrove, to tell him to conduct a more thorough search of the cell.

A hole about the size of a quarter was found in the seat of the wheelchair, and the Suboxone strips were found inside, he said.

During cross examination, Wingrove said he did not search the chair before it was given to Arnold.

He said the seat of the chair was cut open and maintenance personnel completely disassembled the chair during the search.

Wingrove testified that it is unusual for inmates to be upset about cell searches because they are conducted routinely, so he called for a thorough search and began to assist.

The wheelchair was outside of the cell when the hole in the seat was found. The seat had food on it and there were clothes on top of the food, he said.

The Suboxone was found in a plastic bag in the seat, he said.

Wingrove said the chair should have been inspected before it was given to Arnold.

An analyst from the state police crime laboratory in Greensburg testified that the tablet and the strips contained buprenorphine, the narcotic found in Suboxone.