Two people were arrested on drug-related charges Friday after police vice and narcotics officers saw suspicious activity at a convenience store parking lot.
Caree Firestine, 35, and Corey Chatman, 34, were taken into custody after officers stopped the vehicle they were in in the area of West 10th Avenue and Hazel Street, Detective William Ablondi said in a probable cause affidavit presented in district court Monday.
Ablondi said in the affidavit that he and Detective Jeremy Funderburg pulled up to the Hazel Street Food Mart at 1700 S. Hazel St. to make a purchase when they saw a white female later identified as Firestine get out of a vehicle and approach a second car driven by a black male on the parking lot. Firestine got in the back seat and Ablondi reported seeing what appeared to be some type of transaction between Firestine and the driver of the vehicle before she got out and got back into the vehicle she had previously been in.
According to the affidavit, Ablondi said the vehicle containing Firestine left the parking lot quickly and officers followed it to West 10th Avenue and Hazel Street, where they made a traffic stop. Chatman was also in the vehicle and Ablondi reported asking Firestine if there was anything illegal in the vehicle, to which she allegedly said no.
She consented to a search of the vehicle and officers found a black purse in the arm rest, which contained a glass smoking pipe with residue in it. On the floorboard, a small plastic container with the label MSM was found and Ablondi reported that MSM is frequently used as a cutting agent for methamphetamine.
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Found in the container was a plastic bag containing 60.9 grams of a crystal-like substance, which was “three-quarters full” of loose suspected MSM.
Ablondi said the plastic bag containing the crystal-like substance was packaged “in a manner purporting it to be methampetamine” but a field test on the substance indicated it was not.
Funderburg reported finding an orange pill bottle with the label torn off containing nine pills that bore a stamp of NVR D20, a Schedule II controlled substance.
Chatman, who is on parole and is listed as an absconder, allegedly told the officers the pills were his and he took them for pain.
Pine Bluff District Judge John Kearney set a $10,000 bond for Firestine after ruling prosecutors had probable cause to charge her with possession of a counterfeit controlled substance with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A $5,000 cash-only bond was set for Chatman on charges of possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver but Chatman will not be able to post that bond because of the parole absconder warrant.