COPE

LISBON — Brandi Cope, a young woman currently incarcerated in the Columbiana County Jail, testified about her knowledge of both the defendant Danielle Heckathorn and murder victim Quinn Wilson on Wednesday, also giving jurors a glimpse into the lifestyle of a drug addict.

Cope, 23, state Route 45, Lisbon, is serving a 90-day sentence for theft, which she said happened when she owed someone some money for drugs and had no way to pay, so she was given a list of items to shoplift from Walmart.

Cope detailed for the jurors how hard it can be to be addicted. She said she started out taking percocet after a surgery and when she was still in pain after her pain medication ran out her boyfriend at the time suggested she take some heroin for the pain.

“I started doing things I never thought I would do,” Cope said. “You wake up thinking, how am I going to get my high today.”

She also described for the jury what it feels like to be dope sick — constant body aches, diarrhea and violent illness.

“You start thinking, what do my kids have of value that I can sell at Cashland,” Cope said.

She talked about a recent overdose death at the county jail, blaming dope sickness on the man’s decision to hang himself when he could not get any more drugs.

At the time of Wilson’s murder, Cope said she danced at Tiffany’s to make money and she also would do private dances for extra money. She was making enough to provide food and a room at the Travelers Motel south of Lisbon for both herself and her boyfriend at the time, Jared Coil. The rest of what she made she used to support their drug habits. She would use many types of drugs including crack, heroin, methamphetamines and vicodin.

One of Cope’s dealers was Quinn Wilson.

Cope said Wilson was different from other dealers. She said others would threaten to hurt you and your family and then carry it out or just shoot you in the kneecap for not paying debts for drugs.

By contrast Wilson would actually help his clients out sometimes. He fronted her drugs when she was sick until she could feel well enough to go get the money. He helped her get diapers when she needed them for one of her four children. He would give her rides sometimes.

“Even though he was a drug dealer, he was fun, caring and he had a huge heart,” Cope said. “He put his trust in you.”

She also noted he had an innocence and was a happy person. But while she said Wilson would give someone “the shirt off his back,” she denied Wilson would give her his phone to use when questioned by defense attorney Peter Horvath. Instead of giving up his own phone, Cope said he would sometimes buy her minutes for hers.

The last time Cope saw Wilson was Thursday, March 5, 2015, when she met him to buy some crack cocaine. She said he was happy and by the way he was dressed and smelled of cologne, she believed he was on his way to meet a woman. She tried to call him again sometime later to get more drugs, but she could not reach him, so she went to see her uncle, Michael Reynolds, about getting some heroin.

Cope testified she heard Heckathorn and Reynolds in his room and it sounded like they were engaged in sexual activity. When they came out, Cope said she hid that she had heroin from Heckathorn, noting Heckathorn was “greedy” and she would often try to “pinch” extra drugs from others so she could save what she had in her own pocket for later.

Heckathorn reportedly asked Cope if she had seen Q, which was Wilson’s nickname. Cope told Heckathorn she already saw him earlier and Heckathorn made arrangements for Reynolds to take her to meet Wilson because she said she owed him a favor. According to Cope’s testimony, a favor usually meant a sexual favor for drugs.

“We were both tricks,” Cope explained.

When questioned further by Horvath, Cope said she assumed Heckathorn “was tricking” that night and that some men believe it makes them powerful to exchange drugs for sex, although she said Reynolds was a “junkie like the rest of us.”

While Reynolds dropped Heckathorn off to meet with Wilson that night, Cope said she went into Reynolds’ bathroom to use some of the heroin before she went back to the motel. Reynolds lived a short distance away on Brookfield Avenue in Lisbon.

The next day, Cope said Reynolds talked to Coil and from that conversation she learned Wilson had been murdered.

djohnson@mojonews.com