July 14, 2009

15 arrested recently on drug charges

The Walker County Narcotics Enforcement Team has announced that, during June,  it arrested 15 people on drug-related charges and, in the process, seized two methamphetamine labs.

Narcotics Enforcement Team Director Paul Kilgore said NET agents have been busy over the past month working complaints regarding the illegal drug activity being conducted in various communities around Walker County.

According to Kilgore, the majority of the complaints recently received involve methamphetamine labs. Kilgore says NET has worked more meth labs since the first of 2009 than were worked in all of 2008, and things don’t appear to be slowing down any. Kilgore adds that folks who use methamphetamine are able to make it themselves a lot cheaper than they can buy it, so they don’t have to depend on anyone to get the stuff for them.

Kilgore said the ingredients required in the manufacturing of meth are not extremely expensive in that the chemicals used to make the illegal drug can be readily located in the household supply section and pharmacy counters of most department and grocery stores in Walker County.

Kilgore says that the list of chemicals generally used includes some types of drain cleaner, lithium strips out of household batteries, some sort of lantern or starter fluid and pseudoephedrine tablets. Kilgore goes on to say that each of these ingredients alone is harmless, but together they make for a very dangerous and highly volatile situation should one of these labs explode.

Kilgore said NET agents worked two separate cases in June involving meth labs, one inside a residence and another outside a home where two children were residing. NET also assisted in the arrest of 15 people on various drug charges with details outlined below:

• Walker County Sheriff’s Patrol deputies discovered a methamphetamine lab inside a residence on Kelly Road in Jasper while responding to a call on June 23 regarding a domestic dispute. According to Kilgore, when Deputy Gibbs arrived at the residence he discovered a methamphetamine lab being operated inside the residence. There were also children present at the residence. Deputy Gibbs quickly secured the scene and detained three adults until NET agent Blair Huddleston could arrive and collect the evidence and clean-up the components of the lab.

  • James Alan Stewart, 23, of 127 Kelly Road in Jasper, was arrested and charged with first-degree unlawful manufacturing a controlled substance, unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and endangering the welfare of a child.

  • Roger Dale Utley, 31, of 127 Kelly Road in Jasper, was also taken into custody at the residence and charged with first-degree manufacturing of a controlled substance and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.

  • Amy Nicole Lovell of Jasper was also taken into custody at the residence along with Stewart and Utley. But information regarding her arrest was not available as of the writing of this article.

• Kilgore said NET agents Adam Hadder, Steven Smith, Blair Huddleston and Chuck Tidwell, along with Walker County Sheriff’s patrol deputies, Phillip Williams and Gary Knight, executed a search warrant at a residence on Herman Road in the Curry community on June 16, where three people were taken into custody after a methamphetamine lab was discovered outside that residence. Kilgore adds that there were two small children, ages 6 and 8, at the residence who were removed from the scene and placed with the Walker County Department of Human Resources.”

  • Phillip Neil Rhodes, 40, and Terrell Earnest Tucker, 52, of 2412 Herman Road in Jasper, were both taken into custody and charged with first-degree manufacturing a controlled substance.

  • Katherine Danetta Hamilton, 37, of 444 Nail Road in Dora, was also taken into custody at the residence after she allegedly pulled into the driveway to purchase drugs. Hadder said that she had her 10-year-old daughter and 5-month-old baby in the vehicle with her and that NET officers stayed with the children until someone from DHR could come and get them.

Hadder says that NET agents are seeing more and more situations of this kind lately — kids with parents who are either making dope or buying it — and NET is working closely with DHR to remove the children from the potentially dangerous situations. Hadder adds that he's seen situations like this in the past, but it seems to have gotten worse since the economy took a noise dive. He is quick to add that, “It’s real sad, but we work with DHR to remove children from these situations as quickly as possible.”

• Kilgore said NET agents Tidwell and Huddleston arrested two people on various drug charges on June 16 following a traffic stop they made on Alabama Highway 69 South in Jasper.

  • Ralph Lynn Cain, 49, of 2409 Providence Loop Road in Oakman, was charged with public intoxication, unlawful possession of a controlled substance and second-degree possession of marijuana.

  • Sherry Annette Davis, 42, of 1973 Hayes Hill Road in Townley, was charged with unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

• Three people were arrested on June 16 by Hadder and Sheriff Patrol deputies Gary Knight and Carrie Kilpatrick at a residence on Old Russellville Road in Jasper following a tip Knight received about the possible illegal drug activity being conducted at that residence.

  • Jerami Michael Emberg, 29, of 2595 Old Russeville Road in Jasper;

  • Janet Michelle Rutledge, 32, of 556 County Road 79 in Carbon Hill; and

  • Cecil Eugene Butler Jr., 39, of 552 Trinity Lane in Kansas

  All three were taken into custody and charged with unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia and unlawful possession of a controlled substance.

• Kilgore said two people were arrested on June 5 by Sheriff’s deputies Anthony Leach and Alford Grace and NET agent Steve Smith at the Warrior River Motel in Jasper after Sheriff’s deputies Anthony Leach and Alford Grace discovered methamphetamine inside the room they were allegedly staying in at the time.

  • Janice Niblett Johnson, 46, of 530 Stella Lockard Road in Jasper, and

  • Phillip Eugene Pugh, 35, of 86 Wesley Drive in Empire

  Both were taken into custody and charged with the unlawful possession of the controlled substance, methamphetamine.

In that incident, deputies were responding to a disturbance call at the motel apparently involving the two individuals when they discovered the methamphetamine in the room.

• One person was arrested at a residence on Alabama Highway 18 on May 29 during the execution of a search warrant by the Walker County Sheriff’s Office Special Operations Group.

  • Marion Harold Feltman, 64, of 5195 Alabama 18 in Oakman, was arrested and charged with trafficking in the opiate drug, Oxycontin, and first-degree possession of marijuana.

Hadder says this is not the first time Mr. Feltman has been arrested. In fact, he has a number of drug charges pending against him from several other cases NET has worked in the past.

The search warrant stemmed from complaints received from folks living in the neighborhood.

Hadder said search warrants were executed at Feltman’s business and residence and a lot of pills and marijuana were found at both locations.

Hadder says, “We appreciate the folks who contact us regarding the illegal activity being conducted in their community. “They help us a lot."

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