Zanesville men found guilty, sentenced for drug trafficking, motor vehicle manslaughter

ZANESVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) – A Zanesville man found guilty on multiple drug trafficking and possession charges will spend more than 20 years in prison, while another man arrested during the investigation will spend at least 15 years behind bars for vehicular manslaughter.

According to the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office, Nicholas Schilling was sentenced to 22 years in prison for multiple drug charges involving possession and trafficking of a fentanyl-related compound, methamphetamine and methylphenidate.

Schilling was also found guilty of illegal assembly of chemicals to manufacture drugs and criminal assault with a firearm. He was found not guilty of two counts of aggravated robbery.

The charges stem from reports of gunfire on May 12 and police receiving a tip the next day that Schilling was the shooter. On May 14, police began surveillance of the home and saw Colt Lightfoot, wanted in connection with a fatal crash in which he allegedly struck a motorcyclist while under the influence of illegal drugs and fled the scene, enter the home.

A search warrant was executed and police found a large bag containing narcotics, drug paraphernalia, items used to manufacture drugs, bags filled with white crystals, digital scales, and several weapons. A second search warrant turned up a large bag filled with pink powder, believed to be fentanyl.

Also found were bags of unknown pills, strips of suboxone, a medication used to treat opioid addiction, and more bags of crystalline substances and more pink powder, later identified as methamphetamine and fentanyl.

Eventually, police found the shooting victim. He refused to cooperate with investigators, but text messages between the victim and Schilling brought them into contact about the shooting.

Additional text messages linked Schilling to his drug trafficking activities with numerous people.

Nicholas Schilling (courtesy of the Muskingum County Prosecutor’s Office)

Schilling, who was also ordered to pay a $30,000 fine and forfeit all of his firearms, has requested a court-appointed attorney and filed a motion for a new trial.

Lightfoot, who had already served time in prison in 2002 on three other burglary and theft cases, was arrested, tried and convicted of vehicular manslaughter. He was sentenced to 11 to 16 1/2 years in prison.

He was also found guilty of two counts of theft of a motor vehicle, burglary, receiving stolen goods and breaking and entering. For those charges he was sentenced to three terms of 18 months, one term of 12 months and one term of four years.

Those sentences are to run concurrently, but consecutively when combined with his conviction for manslaughter in a traffic accident. Lightfoot’s total sentence is therefore 15 to 20 1/2 years in prison.

The shooting victim identified in Schilling’s case has a criminal record for drug-related offenses in Muskingum County court, but he has not been charged in connection with the incident.