LISBON — A man who failed to report a woman’s alleged overdose death in his East Liverpool home in 2023 is going to prison for 16 months.

Christopher Hightower, 42, West Seventh Street, East Liverpool, appeared for sentencing Monday in Columbiana County Common Pleas Court before Judge Scott Washam.

“The facts of this case are disturbing,” Washam said.

The deceased was identified as 43-year-old Jessica Chapman, whose family contacted East Liverpool police after having difficulty locating her. Her vehicle was found outside Hightower’s residence on Sept. 5, 2023 and that’s when police made contact with him. Jessica was found in a bedroom deceased and had reportedly died several days before that from an apparent drug overdose, county Prosecutor Vito Abruzzino said at the time the indictment was served.

County Assistant Prosecutor Tammie Riley Jones said the case arose out of circumstances “that were completely avoidable.”

She described Hightower as completely indifferent, acting as if nothing had occurred. Jessica Chapman passed away in his house and he didn’t report it. He just left her there and other family members in the house were not aware of what happened. He was cooking at the time officers arrived at the house.

She said he prevented the family from having the type of service they would have wanted for their loved one.

Just six months later, she said he was caught with drugs. According to prosecutor’s information, he possessed heroin and fentanyl on Feb. 15 this year.

Washam denied Hightower’s request for community control and issued a sentence of 10 months for a fifth-degree felony charge of gross abuse of a corpse, 30 days in jail for misdemeanor failure to report knowledge of a death and six months each for two fifth-degree felony counts of possession of drugs. He ordered the drug charges served concurrent to each other, but consecutive to the gross abuse of a corpse charge, for the total prison term of 16 months. The 30-day term for failing to report the death was ordered served concurrently, or served at the same time as the first felony count.

Jessica’s mother, Pattie Chapman, and father, Keith Clark, both addressed the court about how her death has affected them and Jessica’s two boys, ages 9 and 2 years old.

“All I could do is cry — this is a devastating loss,” Pattie said, noting she’s been on medication since it happened.

She talked about her daughter’s sons being left behind, with the older boy being taken care of by Clark and the younger boy with his father. She said she asks herself every day, what did he plan on doing with her body?

The day her daughter’s car was found, she said he told them she wasn’t in there.

“By God’s good grace, he didn’t let us go in,” Pattie said.

When police came outside after going in, they said she was in there, giving her a sense of relief, but then came the news that she had passed.

“We all miss her,” she said.

Clark said there are so many things he doesn’t know about that day, but he does know that Jessica brought the young fellow to their house as a friend, so it was hard to believe what happened.

“There could have been an opportunity to get her help,” he said.

Clark pointed out that the defendant drove her car after she had passed away and all her rings and jewelry were missing.

In speaking about the impact of the loss, he said “you can’t come back from anything like this. It haunts you forever. It haunts you because of what you don’t know. It haunts you because of what you do know,” Clark said.

Defense attorney Paul Conn said he believed his client’s actions were not what he normally would be doing if he knew what he was doing, referring to his drug issues. He said this death has affected him also.

“He is remorseful for what happened,” Conn said, asking for community control.

Hightower addressed the court himself, saying that Jessica was his friend and if he had been sober, he would have helped her.

“I’m really, really sorry,” he said.

“I would never intentionally hurt anybody like that,” he said.

Jones cited the seriousness of the charges and said the recidivism factors weighed against the defendant. She said consecutive sentences were necessary to protect the public.