Three get prison time for meth related charges
Three people who appeared in Baxter County Circuit Court on Monday were sentenced to prison time for methamphetamine related charges.
Brittany Rae Brown, a 35-year-old Gassville woman was sentenced to three years in prison after she entered guilty pleas to possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia as part of a plea bargain.
The charges were the result of a March 3, 2020 incident. Brown and a man were spotted by a Mountain Home police officer as they climbed out of a dumpster behind a shopping mall.
Brown was on probation with a search waiver on file at the time. The officer searched Brown’s purse and discovered a meth pipe and a bag of meth. She was arrested and taken to the Baxter County Jail.
Brown was on probation at the time of her arrest for a second-degree battery charge. In that case, she admitted to beating her 69-year-old grandmother. Brown grabbed her grandmother by the hair, threw her to the floor, then punched and kicked the woman. Two of Brown’s young children witnessed the beating.
Tommy Dwight Gattis, a 30-year-old Mountain Home man, was also sentenced to three years in prison after changing his plea to guilty on six charges of possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of meth, possession of marijuana for the purpose of deliver and endangering the welfare of a minor.
The charges against Gattis stemmed from two cases, the first a traffic stop on December 4 of last year. Trooper Lance Coffman of the Arkansas State Police pulled over a van that had expired tags.
Gattis, a passenger in the van had an active search waiver on file. Inside the van, troopers discovered 1.5 pounds of marijuana and a syringe loaded with a substance that tested positive for meth. A child was in the van at the time of the stop.
Following the arrest, authorities got a search warrant for Gattis’ phone. Upon searching the phone, authorities found evidence of of drug sales, leading them to obtain a warrant to search Gattis’ home. Inside the home, they found numerous items of drug paraphernalia.
Christopher Cody Tabler, a 38-year-old Yellville man was the third defendant to plead guilty to drug charges on Monday. Tabler entered guilty pleas to charges of possession of meth and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The charges stemmed from an incident on September 7, 2020. On that day, Mountain Home police were called to a residence for Tabler appearing there when an active order of protection prevented him from lawfully being at the home.
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MHPD officer Josh Evans went to the Kathleen Street home and found Tabler sitting in car that was parked in the driveway. Tabler got out of the car and told the officer he was there to check on the people at the home. Tabler then tried to leave.
Evans moved to detain Tabler, the pair struggled and Evans deployed his Taser twice before he was able to gain control of Tabler. Upon his arrest, Tabler told the officer there was a box hidden underneath the dashboard of the car. In the box Tabler said the officer would find meth and a meth pipe.
A second officer arrived on scene, searched the car and found the meth and the pipe in the location Tabler described.