Woman sentenced for stealing dying relative’s medicine

TROY - A Troy woman convicted of stealing prescription drugs belonging to a relative who was under hospice care was sentenced Wednesday to five years of community control and completion, if accepted, in the MonDay program.

If Melissa Clark, 53, is denied program participation, she will return to Miami County Common Pleas Court for sentencing to a prison term, Judge Jeannine Pratt said.

Clark was charged with the Nov. 11 possession of three stolen medications, including morphine pills. She was on probation at the time of the offense after pleading to another charge involving theft of liquid morphine from the same relative in June 2017, according to court documents. Police reports said Clark initially blamed hospice workers for the missing medication.

Clark told Pratt she never intended to steal the medications Nov. 11, and she could not recall what occurred after she took some of her own prescription medication in order to sleep. The next thing she remembered, Clark said, was waking up in jail after she was found in a car with the relative's medication.

"I don't think you appreciate the fact you have a problem with drugs," Pratt said.

"She is going to do whatever is necessary to get her fix," Paul Watkins, assistant county prosecutor, said. "If she is going to steal from her mother-in-law in hospice care ... She is a threat to the community."

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