A Dearborn County, Indiana woman who investigators say was selling crack cocaine to as many as 20 people a day out of a Greendale hotel room has been sentenced to more than 10 years in prison. Teresa Todd pleaded guilty to Dealing in Cocaine as a Level 4 Felony, and Dearborn Circuit Court Judge F. Aaron Negangard handed down a 12-year sentence with 10 years executed — the maximum permitted under her plea agreement.
According to WLWT, investigators said Todd was operating out of a room at the Quality Inn & Suites in Greendale, running what Dearborn County Prosecutor Lynn Deddens described as a sustained drug-trafficking operation supplying crack cocaine daily. Deddens said Todd traveled regularly to Cincinnati to buy drugs, then divided them into smaller amounts before distributing them locally. Per officers, a search of her purse turned up marijuana, several bags of cocaine, glass pipes and drug paraphernalia, a digital scale, and packaging material.
A Mother-Daughter Operation, Prosecutors Say
Court sentencing records show one of the aggravating factors in the case was that Todd ran the crack cocaine distribution business jointly with her adult daughter, Autumn Todd, who shared the hotel room and, according to those records, occasionally distributed drugs on her behalf, as reported by Eagle Country 99.3. Judge Negangard cited that joint arrangement as a key factor in imposing the maximum sentence available under the plea deal. It remains unclear whether Autumn Todd faces separate criminal charges of her own, as that question was not addressed in court records reviewed for this case.
Deddens said Teresa Todd's criminal history and repeated supervision failures warranted a substantial executed sentence. That history is extensive: court records cited by the outlet show her criminal record spans roughly 38 years and includes prior convictions for dealing in cocaine, possession of cocaine, forgery, and fraud. The prosecutor pointed to that decades-long pattern in arguing against a lighter punishment.
From a Jailhouse Discovery to a Reduced Plea
Todd's case began after her arrest on May 31, 2025, when she was originally charged with Level 2 Felony Dealing in Cocaine and Level 5 Felony Trafficking with an Inmate, the latter charge stemming from cocaine that jail staff discovered concealed on her body during booking at the Dearborn County Jail. At her initial hearing the following month, Dearborn Circuit Court set her bond at $500,000 surety and $250,000 cash, reflecting the seriousness of the original charges.
Had she been convicted on the original Level 2 felony, Todd would have faced a statutory sentencing range of 10 to 30 years in prison, since Indiana law classifies dealing in 10 or more grams of cocaine at that level. Her negotiated plea to a Level 4 felony instead carried a statutory range of two to 12 years, with an advisory sentence of six years and fines up to $10,000. The exact net weight of cocaine seized from the hotel room search has not been disclosed in available court records.
Time Served and What Comes Next
At her sentencing, Todd received credit for 459 actual days already served in pre-trial detention, plus 153 days of good-time credit, both counting toward her 10-year executed prison term, according to The 812. Once she completes her sentence in the Indiana Department of Correction, Todd will serve two years of supervised probation, which will be administered locally by the Dearborn-Ohio Counties Probation Department.
Deddens, who oversees criminal prosecutions across Indiana's 7th Judicial Circuit covering both Dearborn and Ohio counties, has consistently pushed for executed prison time in cases involving chronic drug dealers in the region. Todd's case closes out more than a year of proceedings that began with a tip leading investigators to the Greendale hotel room where, prosecutors say, the daily drug operation was based.
