A couple was arrested Thursday afternoon after a Marion County sheriff’s deputy recognized the passenger as a man who was wanted on an outstanding warrant.
When the deputy tried to make a traffic stop, the silver Nissan Altima’s driver, later identified as 20-year-old Nichole Suzanne Fairchild, refused to pull over and continued driving south on SE 183rd Avenue, a sheriff’s office report states.
During the pursuit, the passenger, 29-year-old James Woodrow Etheridge, threw something black out the window and into a ditch, the report states, adding that deputies finally got the car stopped in the 2900 block of SE 183rd Avenue.
After both Fairchild and Etheridge were taken into custody, a detective walked back down the roadway and located a black bag in a ditch that contained 20 grams of a crystal-like substance that field tested positive for methamphetamine. Deputies also found a small amount of a green leafy substance that tested positive for marijuana and a pipe used for smoking the drug in the bag, the report says.
After being read his rights, Etheridge told deputies he threw the black bag out the window because “that was all he had” and “I knew I was going to get in trouble,” the report says.
During a search of the vehicle, a sheriff’s lieutenant found a black plastic bag in the center console that contained $15,510 in counterfeit bill money in 100-, 50- and 20-dollar bills. Ten of the bills contained the same serial number, which confirmed they were counterfeit, the report says.
Inside Fairchild’s purse, the sheriff’s lieutenant also found substances that tested positive for cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana, the report says.
Both Fairchild and Etheridge were transported to the Marion County Jail. Fairchild, of Ocala, was charged with fleeing/eluding police with disregard of safety to persons or property, possession of cocaine, possession of a controlled substance, possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams and possession of counterfeit bills. She was being held on $15,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.
Etheridge, of Morriston, was charged with trafficking methamphetamine (14 grams or more), possession of marijuana not more than 20 grams, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of counterfeit bills and a probation for violation for an earlier battery charge. He was being held with no bond and is scheduled to appear in court Aug. 22 at 9 a.m. for the probation violation charge and on Sept. 4 at 9 a.m. for the other four charges.