A 19-year-old Mt. Sterling man was sentenced to two years in prison this week for trafficking methamphetamine in the Robinson Road trailer park.
On Monday in Fayette County Common Pleas Court, Steven T. Nott pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated trafficking in meth, a third-degree felony, as part of a plea agreement with the Fayette County Prosecutor’s Office. The state agreed to dismiss a weapons under disability charge.
Just before noon on June 9, a Washington C.H. Police Department officer responded to the trailer park and found the vehicle with one man inside and another man walking away from it. The officer told the man walking away to come back over, and he was identified as Chad E. Ingles. Dispatch informed the officer that Ingles had an active warrant for his arrest out of Madison County, according to reports, and Ingles was taken into custody.
The driver was identified as Nott, who exited the vehicle and told the officer that the men were “just checking out the pond to see about doing some fishing,” reports stated.
“I then questioned him about the vehicle and if it contained any contraband due to the complaint being drug related,” the officer wrote in his report. “I requested permission to search the vehicle and he did not want officers to search it. I informed him that was his right to do so.”
The K-9 officer, “Edo,” was brought to the scene to perform a “free air sniff” around the vehicle and he made a positive indication at the driver’s side door. At that point, police searched the vehicle and found a small glass vial of what appeared to be a crystal rock-like substance next to the console of the driver’s seat where Nott had been sitting. Nott was then arrested.
The substance later field tested positive as methamphetamine, according to police. During the search of Nott, $864 in cash was found on his person.
A search warrant was obtained in order to search a small red tin lock box found on the passenger side floorboard of the vehicle. The lock box contained narcotics, scales, cash and a loaded firearm. Two more bags of meth were found inside.
