Couple arrested after deputies find heroin, drug pipes in truck

A homeless man and an Ocala woman were arrested on drug charges Tuesday morning in the parking lot of a Pilot Travel Center in Ocala.

According to a Marion County Sheriff’s report, a deputy saw a white Dodge Ram pickup truck run through a red light in the 2000 block of Southwest County Road 484. When the deputy tried to stop the truck, 21-year-old Nathaniel Aaron Maturen took a hard right into the Pilot parking lot and didn’t stop until he reached the back of the property where semi-trucks park, the report states.

Due to the vehicle taking such evasive maneuvers, the deputy put Maturen in handcuffs until backup units arrived.

A short time later, a sheriff’s lieutenant spoke with Maturen’s girlfriend, 20-year-old Breanna Rachelle Anderson, and smelled the odor of marijuana coming from the truck. When deputies questioned Maturen, he admitted that he had smoked marijuana the day before.

Deputies then searched the vehicle and found a syringe under the driver’s seat containing a clear liquid that tested positive for heroin.

Anderson told deputies that there may be a pipe in the truck and admitted she had “smoked” in the past few days. After deputies saw a small glass pipe inside a small black bag in the front-row seat of the vehicle, Anderson admitted that it was hers. Deputies found pipes inside the bag containing a white residue, but it wasn’t enough to conduct a field test, the report says.

Maturen was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance. Anderson also was arrested and charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Both were transported to the Marion County Jail.

Maturen was held on $5,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom July 3 at 9 a.m. Anderson was held on $500 bond and is set to appear in court June 27 at 1 p.m.