Shootout victim's mom: Stop the drugs

Whatever questions may remain about the February shootout in New Marshfield and the legal outcomes of the trials stemming from the incident, there's one undoubted victim: Donnie Putnam, the 39-year-old Meigs County man who was shot to death in the crossfire.

In a recent interview, Putnam's mother, Sharon Tucker, told The Athens NEWS that while she believes the Athens County sheriff's and prosecutor's offices have done the best job they can at pursuing justice in the case, she believes some of the people she holds responsible for her son's death deserve more punishment than they've gotten so far.

"I think (the authorities) have gotten all they could get at this point," Tucker said. "I'm very satisfied with the three guys (who've been convicted of murder)... I feel the prosecutors did a great job on the trials."

Shortly after midnight on Feb. 15, Donnie Putnam and his girlfriend drove up to a New Marshfield Road trailer, the home of Billy Osborne, Jr. Based on testimony in a series of trials, Putnam, who his mother said had once been a truck driver, had come to Osborne's residence hoping to buy marijuana. Osborne, now serving nearly five years in prison on a cocaine possession charge, has been described in trial testimony as a drug dealer.

Unfortunately for Putnam, he seems to have chosen exactly the wrong moment to show up. Just as he pulled into the property, according to trial testimony, two young Columbus men were trying to force their way through the front door of Osborne's home with the intent of robbing him. According to county prosecutors, Abdifatah Abdi, 16, and Mohat Osman, 17, had been hired by New Marshfield drug dealer Phillip Dionte Boler as armed "thugs," to help him collect on a $13,000 drug debt that Osborne owed Boler for crack.

Seeing Osborne, whom he knew, locked in a struggle with two men on his front porch, Putnam reportedly rushed to help him, and when a gunfight erupted, a 9mm bullet struck him in the chest, killing him.

Osman, Abdi and Boler have all been convicted by juries of murder and aggravated robbery, and sentenced to 28 years to life in prison.

Tucker said she's satisfied that those three have gotten about what they deserved from the justice system, but believes Osborne may have gotten off too lightly. She said she believes that Osborne's activities as a drug dealer were widely known in the New Marshfield area for a long time before the Feb. 15 shootout, and that authorities had had his trailer under surveillance for years.

"I hope he gets something (more), because he was selling drugs out of that house, and it's been going on for years," Tucker said. "And I don't understand that... Why wasn't anything done before this?"

Sheriff Pat Kelly noted Wednesday that the shootout occurred less than two months into his first term in office. He agreed that Osborne's role as a drug dealer was probably known to law enforcement for some time.

"It was, but then again, for the past eight years, there wasn't any drug interdiction," he said. He added that the Major Crimes Task Force "“ a multi-county law enforcement group that Athens County dropped out of late last year, just before Kelly took office "“ was apparently investigating Osborne, but that his office didn't get any help from the task force.

"The Major Crimes Task Force had information on that case that they didn't share with me," he alleged.

Tucker said she believes that like Osborne, John Perry II, a 24-year-old Athens man who was reportedly involved in the shootout, also deserves harsher punishment than he's now facing.

Perry was inside Osborne's trailer, and according to some testimony, was firing a 9mm handgun "“ the type that killed Putnam "“ outward through the wall. He is currently charged with evidence tampering and perjury, based on allegations that he left the scene with the handgun before police arrived, then later tried to pass off a similar gun as the one he absconded with.

"I hope he gets something too," Tucker said. "I think they all should go down, is my point, because my son was killed."

Perry's defense attorney has said that he believes the county prosecutor's office may be planning to seek an indictment of Perry on a manslaughter charge, once the current charges against him are resolved.

Tucker recalled her son as a happy, helpful person. She didn't condone his drug use, but said she never saw evidence that he had any kind of serious addiction problem, and certainly doesn't think he deserved to die for his habit.

"Donnie was a good person," she said. "He was a nice, kind person. He would do anything for anybody."

She added that until she heard of the circumstances of her son's death, she had no idea that he even knew Osborne.

"I never even heard Bill Osborne's name," she said. "Didn't even know who Bill Osborne was "“ or John Perry."

Shortly before the fatal shootout, she acknowledged, she did begin to see some signs in Putnam's behavior that indicated he might be having drug problems.

"I think he got in with the wrong people, which I didn't know about until he got killed," she said. "I said (to him), 'I hope you're not fooling around with anything.'"

If she's concluded anything from the senseless gun battle that took her son away from her, Tucker said, it's that this county has a deadly drug problem that needs to be addressed by law enforcement. (Sheriff Pat Kelly has said repeatedly that interdiction of hard drugs is his agency's top priority.)

"I don't approve of drugs "“ never did, never will," Tucker said. "I just want them to clean it up. It needs to be stopped, all of it. Or else who's going to be the next person killed?"