Jeroyd Conyers

A city man who prosecutors allege “poisoned our community” with heroin for years will spend up to 24 years in state prison.

Jeroyd Conyers, 37, was sentenced Tuesday on five drug convictions, including one that involved a gun, by Butler County Judge Timothy McCune. In addition to the 12- to 24-year prison sentence, Conyers was ordered to pay nearly $100,000 in fines.

Prosecutor B.T. Fullerton had asked for a 12- to 30-year sentence, describing Conyers as a lifelong, chronic offender.

Defense attorney Leland Clark painted his client as remorseful and willing to change with the support of his loving family, which includes a longtime pastor.

But Judge McCune said, “I view you as a businessman ... And this is the cost of doing business.”

According to court records, Conyers' arrest was part of a yearlong investigation by county narcotics officers. Investigators believe Conyers helped funnel heroin to Butler from his hometown of Chicago on a regular basis.

During the task force investigation, Conyers sold 10- to 50-bag quantities of heroin to a police informant on three occasions at a store on South Main Street in Butler.

Butler police arrested Conyers following a traffic stop in the city. Conyers, a passenger in the car, was found with 120 bags of heroin and $1,860 in currency, according to court documents.

Later that afternoon the task force searched Conyers' home at 118 Fourth Ave. and found 320 more bags of heroin as well as an ounce of bulk heroin still not packaged. Additionally, officers turned up a revolver with its serial number filed off.

Conyers pleaded guilty to two counts of possession with intent to deliver, two counts of delivering heroin, and a count each of delivery of a controlled substance, and former convict not to possess a weapon.

During the sentencing hearing, Fullerton outlined what he called Conyers' “extensive” and “non-stop” criminal history, which dates back to when he was 17 years old and includes arrests in Chicago, Georgia and Butler. Conyers was on probation for two Butler County cases, a drug violation and a simple assault, when the new arrests occurred.

“He's been polluting our community for 10 years,” Fullerton said.

Noting that Conyers came from a supportive upstanding family, the prosecutor said he had the opportunity to follow that lifestyle but instead chose a “predatory” lifestyle, “poisoning” the less fortunate drug addicts in the community. Officials, Fullerton said, have no choice but to “keep him away from our community for an extended period of time.”

Conyers mother, Rose Conyers, who spoke during the hearing said her youngest son had done well in Catholic school and high school.

But he chose a Christian-based college in Texas that “wasn't a good fit,” dropped out and joined his parents who had moved to Butler. The couple moved here so that Conyers' father, the Rev. Phillip Conyers, could be a minister. He did that for 12 years before retiring to Georgia, where the couple now lives.

Rose Conyers told the judge that she believes her son will some day fulfill his dream of becoming a “teacher or something to help young people not to pick the path he chose ... God has something very important for him to do.”

The defendant, when given the opportunity to speak, briefly apologized to the court and his family.