A man once listing his address as Mountain Home has faced criminal charges filed in Baxter, Greene, Izard and Jefferson Counties.
Thirty-four-year-old Mason Alexander Grant was declared a fugitive June 12 when he failed to show up in Baxter County Circuit Court.
Statewide court records show he may have been tied up with a new drug case opened against him in Jefferson County Circuit Court June 13. Grant’s growing pile of cases makes following any kind of coherent paper trail on him difficult at best.
Grant’s nomadic lifestyle makes him difficult to pin down. He has listed addresses in various places, including along Highway 135 North in Paragould, rural Mountain Home and White Hall. White Hall is a small city in Jefferson County where Grant shows an address along Gamble Road. Records show he is being supervised by the Pine Bluff office of Arkansas Community Correction (ACC).
He was taken into custody at White Hall May 3 after probation/parole officers conducted a compliance visit at his home. They found a substance which tested to be a mix of methamphetamine and fentanyl and paraphernalia to ingest drugs.
The probable cause affidavit in the new Jefferson County drug case shows Grant was taken to the Sheridan Detention Center in Grant County — a county where he did not appear to have charges filed against him.
Dina Tyler, communications director for the Arkansas Department of Correction, said he was taken to Sheridan primarily because there was space to hold him. He was released from the facility the day after being booked, his parole hold was lifted and he was ordered to report to the officer supervising his parole in Pine Bluff. As is his habit, Grant did not show up.
Because he did not meet with his parole officer on May 8, ACC officers returned to his residence in White Hall. Grant was gone. He had been evicted from the property the day before.
A warrant for his arrest was issued. His whereabouts were unknown as of June 16.
He is recorded as telling officers in White Hall that he had also recently been arrested in Mountain Home on drug charges. Grant also allegedly admitted to officers he is a drug user but denied selling drugs.
He was due in Baxter County Circuit Court June 12 on charges he had used counterfeit money to buy a vehicle from a local resident and being in possession of drugs in April. In addition to his alleged use of funny money to purchase the vehicle, Grant was found to be in possession of about 30 grams of methamphetamine, seven hydrocodone pills and a pipe used to ingest drugs.
When he was initially booked on the local charges, he listed White Hall as his place of residence.
After being a no show in Baxter County Circuit Court, a failure to appear warrant was ordered issued. Failure to make a scheduled appearance in circuit court is a felony.
In the past, Grant has also been charged with a similar crime. He once had possession of a John Deere tractor stolen from a Mountain Home residence and valued at $30,000.
In 2016, he swapped the tractor for a truck. The truck owner found out the tractor was stolen and returned it to Grant.
When investigators interviewed Grant in late January 2016, he showed them where the tractor was located.
He spent time in prison on the theft by receiving charge.
According to Department of Correction records, Grant has been in and out of prison seven times. On two occasions, he has also been sent to the Omega supervision sanction center which is a 60 day lockup program for parole violators.
Through the years, records show Grant has bounced back and forth between Paragould, Mountain Home and locations in Izard County and in the recent past White Hall. Those records also show he has ended up with charges in each area.
Grant is no stranger to failure-to-appear warrants. At one time an FTA warrant was issued against him for not showing up in Green County Circuit Court on a charge of failing to abide by the rules and regulations of the sex offender registration program.
The reason: He was in jail in Baxter County on another charge at the time.
He was required to register as a sex offender in Greene County after being convicted of second-degree sexual assault in early December 2007.
Grant has been accused of sex offender registration violations in Baxter, Greene and Izard Counties.
Ironically, he was once arrested when he came to the Baxter County Sheriff’s office so he would be in compliance with those same registration requirements. During the registration process, information is gathered, including a check on vehicle and drivers license data. Grant said his driver’s license was suspended.
When asked how he had gotten to the sheriff’s office, he initially said someone had dropped him off.
Video surveillance cameras showed that Grant had driven himself. He was arrested for not having a valid driver’s license, but when he was taken to jail, a small amount of methamphetamine and items of drug paraphernalia were found.
During the years, Grants charges have included sexual assault, several instances of failure to register as a sex offender, theft by receiving, possession of drugs, possession of drug paraphernalia, drunk driving, aggravated assault, public intoxication and endangering the welfare of a minor. Some of the cases show they were dismissed.
WebReadyTM Powered by WireReady® NSI