A Conway man pulled over in Baxter County and found to have weapons and a large cache of drugs in his vehicle appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court last week.
Twenty-eight-year-old James Adrian Peers entered a not guilty plea to the charges against him and told the court he would be represented by Little Rock attorney Patrick Benca.
The vehicle Peer was driving was stopped by a Baxter County sheriff’s deputy in the Midway area May 25 for minor traffic and equipment violations.
The charges against Peer quickly escalated in seriousness.
The deputy reported while he was speaking to Peer, he noticed the smell of burned marijuana and also saw several odor masking air fresheners hanging inside the 2006 Jeep.
While the deputy went to his patrol car to run a check on Peer, he saw Peer “moving around in the vehicle, opening a backpack and reaching under a seat.”
Another deputy was dispatched to assist with the stop and Peer was told to exit his vehicle, which he did not do immediately.
He told deputies he had a handgun in his jacket pocket.
The handgun was located and another weapon was found inside the vehicle.
A search of the vehicle turned up a large quantity of drugs, drug paraphernalia and almost $3,600 in cash.
The drugs included cocaine, fentanyl, marijuana, Oxycodone, Alprazolam and THC gummies.
Also found were THC gummies. These “edibles” contain the main psychoactive ingredient in marijuana.
Deputies also found scales, a marijuana grinder and a glass-smoking pipe used to ingest drugs.
Several of Peer’s charges are Class Y felonies, including trafficking a controlled substance, simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms. A Class Y felony in Arkansas is the most serious classification of crime not punishable by death.
The penalty for conviction on a Class Y felony can mean life in prison.
The state has also confiscated Peer’s vehicle, the weapons, drugs and the almost $3,600 in cash found during the traffic stop.
Peer has been free on a $250,000 bond put up by a Pine Bluff bail bond company.
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