Published: March 05, 2009 05:51 pm      

Drug sight the clincher

The strong odor of marijuana was the first clue. The second was the clincher as a county deputy actually saw the illegal drug hanging from the clothing of a Pauls Valley man resulting in his arrest and a criminal charge.

Coming this week was a single felony charge filed against Albert Baxter, 21, in Garvin County District Court.

The actual allegation was a count of unlawfully possessing a controlled dangerous substance with the intent to distribute.

It all stems from an incident this past Saturday when Baxter was stopped after a vehicle he was driving was seen stopped on an Interstate 35 ramp west of Paoli.

In Baxter’s case, a deputy, Dean Phillips, patrolling on state Highway 145 first saw a vehicle stopped in the middle of the interstate off-ramp southbound.

A filed affidavit shows Phillips waited a couple of minutes for the vehicle to move.

After backing up for a distance, the vehicle did move forward and turned back toward Paoli.

Moments later Phillips and a Lighthorse police officer pulled over the vehicle in the parking lot of a nearby gaming center.

As the driver, identified as Baxter, was looking for his license, Phillips said a strong odor of marijuana was clearly smelled coming from the car’s interior.

With the intention of placing him under “investigative detention,” Phillips ordered Baxter to exit the vehicle.

As the deputy was placing the suspect’s hands behind his back for the handcuffs, Baxter is reported to have pulled away resulting in his driver’s license falling to the pavement a few feet away.

Phillips later said he was walking back after retrieving the license when he saw something hanging from under the right side of Baxter’s jacket.

The deputy claimed to see a clear bag with marijuana inside.

It was at that point Baxter was actually arrested on a drug complaint.

The affidavit shows more marijuana was found in the vehicle as the total amount of the drug came to about a half-pound, Phillips reported.

Baxter was also given a traffic citation for backing the vehicle on the I-35 ramp.