Legal Question in Criminal Law in Ohio

In Ohio, if you are charged with an F5, you can get a maximum of one year of incarceration. But sentencing guidelines establish a general rule that upon a conviction for an F4 or an F5, there is a presumption against incarceration and in favor of community control (probation) as a sentence unless there is something about the way that the crime was committed that makes incarceration more appropriate. For instance, if you get caught stealing enough money from a store that it get to F5 (rather than a misdemeanor), under the presumption against incarceration you might still get probation. But if you were stealing that same amount of money, but the money was supposed to go to kids needing cancer treatment, the judge might find that could overcome the presumption against actual incarceration.

While you mentioned that this is your first drug conviction, a judge might find it significant if you have several other convictions for other crimes and use that to sentence you to some amount of actual incarceration.

If you don't feel like your public defender is doing a good job, you can have a talk with him or her and bring up your concerns along these lines. Tell the attorney that you would like to be more involved in the case and that you want to schedule a meeting to be updated on what is going on. If the attorney does not respond, then you can call in and speak to his/her supervisor and ask to be assigned to a different attorney as yours seems a bit too busy to communicate with you.

But public defenders hear the statement "those aren't my drugs" from their clients about 95% of the time. So unless you can put forward some evidence that casts real doubt upon your having no knowledge that the drugs were there other than your own testimony, having a long sitdown meeting with the attorney might not help either of you out too much.

Or you could hire private counsel if you come into some money either through work or family/friends helping you out.