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Spokane woman sentenced for heroin |
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July 27, 2017 |
A 24-year-old Spokane woman who paid a visit to
Bonners Ferry last year with a Montana man will
be a guest of Idaho a bit longer than she
anticipated after being charged with possession
of heroin and paraphernalia. But if she plays
her cards right, she won't have to stay quite as
long as she could.
On March 5, 2016, security at the Kootenai River
Inn called sheriff's dispatch to report
suspicious activity, and Bonners Ferry Police
Officer Willie Cowell took a ride to the Inn,
where he watched video surveillance of Savannah
E. Halsey and Stephen P. Wood, 42, Montana, in
the cab of a 1998 GMC pickup in the lot bearing
Montana plates.
The two had since returned to the Inn, but as
Cowell watched the tapes of them in the truck
doing what appeared to be smoking meth in a
glass pipe, security watched on a live camera as
they again left the building and returned to the
truck. Before he could return to his patrol
vehicle, the pair had left the Inn parking lot
headed north.
Cowell caught up to them as they drove out of
city limits heading up the North Hill, and took
note as the vehicle swerved out of its proper
lane and traveled well over the speed limit. As
a sheriffs deputy traveled to assist, Cowell
followed the GMC as it turned east on Highway 2,
then pulled the rig over in the Three Mile
parking lot.
Wood proved to be uncooperative, refusing to
obey directions, grabbing suddenly for items in
the truck and out of officer view, then refusing
to put his hands where they could be seen;
actions that understandably failed to impress
the officers, who employed a taser to settle him
down and take him into custody.
While the deputy handled the chore of arresting
Wood, Cowell told Halsey what he'd just been
watching her and Wood smoking meth on the KRI
surveillance tape, which she didn't deny, and as
he was patting her down for weapons, the back of
his hand encountered a bulge in her front pants
pocket.
"It's paraphernalia," she said without
prompting, a heroin cooker she said belonged to
Wood.
One thing law enforcement officers in such a
situation hate more than anything is getting
poked with a hidden needle, so he asked her if
she perhaps had such about her person.
As she assured him she absolutely did not, one
fell from the jacket she had on ... which she
immediately said belonged to Wood.
In searching the cab of the truck, Cowell found
a grocery bag holding women's clothing and a
makeup bag, which held 11 additional syringes,
each either filled with heroin and ready to use
or containing residue that indicated they'd been
used not long before.
While Woods was charged with possession of meth,
a felony, and possession of less than three
ounces of marijuana, Halsey was charged with
felony possession of heroin and possession of
paraphernalia, a misdemeanor later dismissed in
a plea agreement for a guilty plea to the
felony.
Judge Barbara Buchanan sentenced her last week
to two years in prison, determinate, two years
indeterminate, then retained jurisdiction to
give Halsey the chance to successfully complete
a one year program at Cottonwood, after which
she could be granted probation instead of
prison. |
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