A habitual offender on parole was sentenced to four years in prison Monday after pleading guilty in Garland County Circuit Court to felony drug charges stemming from a traffic stop last summer.
Keith Dwayne Williams, who was set to stand trial Jan. 3, 2019, pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance, meth, possession of drug paraphernalia and felony failure to appear and was sentenced to four years on each count, to run concurrently, and ordered to pay $465 in court costs.
Williams, who lists a Central Avenue address, is classified as a habitual offender with previous convictions on Nov. 4, 1996, for violation of the Arkansas hot check law, on Oct. 4, 2011, for possession of a controlled substance, meth, and on Nov. 26, 2012, for second-degree forgery. He was sentenced to six years in prison on the 2012 charge and was on parole.
According to the probable cause affidavit, on July 30, 2017, Garland County sheriff's Deputy Justin Parker was patrolling the area of Highway 7 south when he made a traffic stop on a red Toyota four-door sedan after determining the license plate returned to a different vehicle.
The driver and front seat passenger, identified as Williams, were unable to provide any documentation for the vehicle so they were both asked to get out.
When Williams got out, Parker noticed the plunger to a syringe under the front passenger seat. Parker searched Williams and found a baggie with 0.8 gram of what later tested positive for meth in his wallet along with three syringes containing liquid meth, approximately 6.8 grams.
The affidavit noted the syringes appeared to have been used multiple time with blood inside and "bent sweaty needles." Williams was taken into custody at that time and released later that day on $3,500 bond.
He pleaded not guilty to the charges on Sept. 25, 2017, but failed to appear at a pretrial hearing on Feb. 12, 2018, so a warrant was issued for his arrest. He was arrested again on the failure to appear charge on Aug. 1 and had remained in custody on zero bond since then.
Local on 08/29/2018