An apparently intoxicated motorist arrested after allegedly driving on the sidewalk Thursday afternoon was soon facing multiple felony drug charges after crack cocaine, marijuana and numerous Xanax pills were found.
Heather Michelle Alvis, 46, who lists a Spruce Street address, was taken into custody shortly before 5 p.m. and charged with possession of cocaine with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and possession of Xanax with purpose to deliver, possession of marijuana with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia, each punishable by up to six years in prison.
Alvis was also charged with misdemeanor counts of driving while intoxicated, drugs, first offense, and refusal to submit to a chemical test and was cited for careless and prohibited driving, failure to maintain control and no liability insurance.
She was being held on $12,000 bond and was set to appear Friday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, shortly before 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Hot Springs police Officer Tyler Ward responded to the 3800 block of Central Avenue regarding a possibly intoxicated driver after a passing Garland County Sheriff's deputy spotted a blue Nissan Xterra "driving on the sidewalk northbound on Central" with a flat passenger tire.
Ward pulled into the parking lot of Chili's Grill & Bar, 3815 Central, and observed a woman, later identified as Alvis, leaning against her Nissan and noted she appeared unsteady on her feet with difficulty keeping her balance. He also noted she had glassy eyes with "pinpoint pupils" and appeared to have dry mouth with dried saliva on the corners of her mouth and "stringy saliva" on her lips.
Alvis told him she was in a wreck on Wednesday and had a black eye, swollen nose and multiple cuts on her hands. Her car had visible front end damage and a flat front passenger side tire. She got down under her vehicle to check the spare tire and lost her balance standing back up.
Ward administered three field sobriety tests and Alvis reportedly failed all of them, exhibiting signs of being impaired. She submitted to a Breathalyzer test which showed a blood-alcohol result of .00%.
Alvis allegedly admitted to using tramadol, Flexeril and Xanax so she was taken into custody for DWI. In searching her, Ward found a small silver container with eight Xanax pills.
In searching the vehicle, Sgt. John Tinney allegedly found a black duffle bag with 5.7 grams of what later tested positive for crack cocaine and three baggies of marijuana, with a total weight of 77.4 grams. He also found three pipes used for smoking cocaine and four more Xanax pills.
Local on 09/28/2019