KINGWOOD — Three people who said they traveled from Ohio to meet someone in Preston County face drug charges after police said they found meth in the vehicle in which the three were traveling.
Andrew James Taylor, 36, of Akron, Ohio; Joseph Robert Bondurant, 38, of Akron, Ohio; and Courtney Rae Jenkins, 24, of Shanks, were each charged Wednesday with felony possession of meth with intent to deliver.
Bond was set at $100,000 each. All three were in the Tygart Valley Regional Jail Thursday.
According to criminal complaints by Preston Sheriff’s Deputy 1st Class B.E. Hovatter, he was searching in the Tunnelton area for a dark colored Subaru hatchback whose driver was believed to have been involved in a disturbance earlier that day.
He saw a vehicle matching that description go onto Number 4 Road but lost sight of it. A short time later, he found the car sitting nearly in the middle of Buckeye Road with its lights off.
The two front-seat occupants slouched down, as though trying to hide. Hovatter asked all three to raise their hands and stay in the car until another officer arrived.
The deputy found a needle and large rubber band in Bondurant’s pocket, which Bondurant said he used to shoot up with meth. Taylor and Bondurant both said they had prior drug charges.
“None of the defendants appeared to know much about one another and stated that they had traveled from Ohio and were supposed to meet someone in the Tunnelton area,” according to the criminal complaints.
Jenkins, who owned the vehicle, gave consent to search it. K-9 Officer Sampson alerted on the driver’s and front passenger seats.
Officers found five cell phones, a digital scale, several plastic bags containing a total of 11.11 grams (.39 ounces) of a substance that field tested positive for meth and a black plastic container with drug paraphernalia in the car.
Jenkins had $66 in her sock.
All three “claimed to not have knowledge of the methamphetamine in the vehicle,” according to the complaint.
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