Deputy sniffs out marijuana suspects in local motel room

Deputy Keith Dale doesn’t need a K-9 partner to sniff out drug activity. While on routine foot patrol Nov. 19, he smelled marijuana smoke coming from under a door at the Ranger Inn in Alva, according to a court affidavit filed Nov. 28 in Woods County District Court. Quickly calling for backup from Alva Officer Patrick Hawley, Dale knocked and announced “Sheriff’s Office, open the door,” and he immediately heard shuffling in the room and the light went out, the affidavit states. Fearing destruction of evidence, Dale attempted to enter the room and immediately the lights came back on and the door opened. Dale observed five people in the room: a white female, black male and white male in a bed and two while males standing.

Hearing the toilet flushing, Dale attempted to rush to the bathroom, the affidavit states, but one occupant, Adam Manor, was blocking his path Dale “removed Manor from my path and continued to the bathroom,” according to narrative in the affidavit. Dale retrieved a clear plastic baggy of marijuana along with “other pieces of marijuana” from the toilet. “Lying on the table in the room, in plain view, was one package of Swisher Sweet brand cigarillos,” Dale stated in the affidavit. “The package contained 4 of the 5 cigars that should have been in the package.” Dale also recovered a marijuana “roach” from a drawer in the nightstand.

Statements from the occupants of the room indicated the missing cigar had been used to smoke the marijuana and had been flushed down the toilet, according to information in the affidavit. Their statements indicated Manor provided the marijuana to Zachery Lee Head and the other occupants of the room, Jana Darlene Smith, Theodore Patrick Daniels and Joseph S. Carr. At press time, the only charges filed were against Manor and included unlawful distribution of [marijuana], possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting arrest and destruction of evidence.

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