One of two suspects arrested earlier this summer on drugs and firearms charges was sentenced to five years in prison after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court.
Stephanie Ann Knox, 24, who has remained in custody since her arrest June 8 in lieu of $3,500 bond, pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm by certain persons while an additional felony charge of possession of a controlled substance was withdrawn by prosecutors. Court costs were expunged for time served.
Her sentence will run concurrently with the violation of her parole from her conviction for aggravated assault in 2014 where she was sentenced to eight years in prison, but later paroled. Knox was scheduled to stand trial Sept. 25.
According to the affidavit, on June 8, shortly before 10 a.m., Hot Springs police Officer 1st Class John McLean responded to a report of a person smoking marijuana in a gray Chrysler parked on McCauley Court. He made contact with the female occupant of the vehicle, identified as Carrie Lashar Wiley, 27, of Hot Springs, and after noting a strong smell of marijuana from inside the vehicle, he had her get out so he could search it.
McLean allegedly found half a cigarillo containing suspected marijuana, an unlabeled prescription bottle with numerous different colored pills and a purse containing a loaded 9-mm handgun, a full magazine of ammunition, a vaporizer containing a black oil substance, an ID card and several debit cards belonging to Knox.
At that point, Knox approached the vehicle and when asked, she confirmed the purse found belonged to her. When asked about the vaporizer, she said the black substance inside was "supposed to be that THC oil stuff you can smoke."
The police narcotics unit responded and identified the pills found as three Clonazepam, 57 Alprazolam and six pieces of a Buspirone Hydrochloride pill.
A computer check showed both Wiley and Knox were previously convicted of felonies so they were both taken into custody. Once at the detention center, Wiley handed over two bags of marijuana from under each breast, each of which weighed approximately 1.6 grams.
Local on 08/10/2017