Three suspects arrested following traffic stop
Sheriff’s files
STEVEN MROSS
The Sentinel-Record staff
A traffic stop on a suspicious vehicle reportedly driving erratically late Thursday led to the arrest of three suspects, including two in connection with handguns found in the vehicle.
Two passengers, Redmon D. Logan, 35, who lists an address of 150 Arbor St., and James Harold Edmonds III, 20, who lists an address of 234 Lowery St., were both charged with a misdemeanor count of carrying a weapon, punishable by up to one year in jail.
The driver, Jeffrey Mitchell, 43, was found to have two warrants for terroristic threatening and warrants for harassment and harassing communications, so he was taken into custody on the warrants and cited for driving left of center.
According to reports, shortly before 11 p.m., Garland County sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Wharton was patrolling in the 2700 block of Albert Pike and saw a tan 1999 Honda Accord traveling west and noted the occupants appeared “very nervous” and “kept watching” him as he traveled in his unit behind them.
He states the Accord crossed the centerline several times as it continued onto Mountain Pine Road and was going 10 to 15 mph slower than the posted limit. He followed the car as it turned onto Mid-America Boulevard and then attempted to turn onto Trooper Drive, nearly striking the median.
The vehicle then sped up to approximately 41 mph in a 30 mph zone and turned right onto Centennial Drive, Wharton states, so he pulled them over in the 300 block and made contact with occupants, including Logan, Edmonds and Mitchell and a 21-year-old back seat passenger.
While speaking with them, Wharton again noted they all seemed nervous to the point their hands were shaking and they were sweating “even though the outside temperature was approximately 25 degrees.”
He conducted a pat-down search of the occupants and found a glass smoking pipe in Edmonds’ possession. In searching the vehicle, the deputy reportedly found a .40-caliber handgun between the front passenger seat and center console and a .380-caliber handgun under the front passenger seat. Edmonds and Logan were taken into custody for the guns.
Mitchell was found after the warrants were discovered and Logan’s mother came to the scene and took possession of the vehicle and took the 21-year-old, who was not charged, with her.
All three suspects had bonded out as of Friday and are set to appear Dec. 24 in Garland County District Court.
