An Ocala couple was arrested Tuesday after members of a special drug strike team followed up on a tip and raided their home.
Agents from the Unified Drug Enforcement Strike Team (UDEST) had received information last month about a high volume of vehicles coming and going from a residence located at 712 SW 2nd St. in Ocala – behavior that typically is associated with drug sales.
UDEST agents visited the home on Feb. 14 and encountered two women sitting in the front yard beside the residence. An agent observed 51-year-old Tina Leverne Gunter holding cash in her hand, which she eventually concealed in a small plastic box on her lap, a UDEST report states.
Gunter told the agents that she lived at the residence with her family and that no one was inside the house. While speaking with her and the other woman, a UDEST agent smelled the odor of raw marijuana coming from the residence each time the wind would blow in his direction, the report says.
The agent could hear movement inside the residence even though Gunter had said that no one was in the house. So he knocked on the side of the house and a few minutes later 46-year-old Michael Antionne Mathis exited the front door of the residence. Gunter told the agent that Mathis was her husband and they live in the house together, the report says.
The agent then went to the back of the house on the neighbor’s property where he could see a man sitting in a chair in the backyard. The man then walked toward the front of the house and left on foot. Mathis, Gunter and the other woman also left the house in a gold Honda, which was parked in front of the residence.
Ocala Police officers joined with UDEST agents to secure a perimeter around the residence while a search warrant was drafted. After it was signed by a judge, agents descended on the 460-square foot, one bedroom home that contained plenty of pictures of Mathis and Gunter and found:
- A loaded Smith & Wesson Bodyguard .380-caliber pistol in plain sight on the nightstand in the bedroom. The handgun contained five rounds and was discovered to be stolen in reference to another Ocala Police Department case. Mail and clothes belonging to Mathis and Gunter also were found in the bedroom.
- Two metal measuring cups and a fork with white residue on them, and white flakes “consistent with the cooking/manufacturing process to make crack cocaine” were found in the kitchen. The white powder field tested positive for cocaine.
- A digital scale containing residue and a clear sandwich baggie containing a gray/brown powder next to the scale near a microwave oven in the kitchen. The powder tested positive for heroin/Fentanyl and had a raw weight of 3.5 grams.
- A Pringles potato chip can holding a sandwich baggie that contained a white powder with a raw weight of 17.5 grams that tested positive for cocaine.
- An orange-tinted pill bottle next to the Pringles can that contained a baggie of a crystal substance with a raw weight of 13.5 grams that tested for positive for methamphetamine and cocaine.
- A digital scale with a white powder and marijuana residue on it and “two boxes of sandwich baggies, which indicate narcotics packaging and distribution.”
- 29 grams of marijuana in a chair next to the dining room table.
Agents also searched two sheds located next to each other in the backyard. One appeared to be a “hang out area” that contained a couch and several working arcade-style games, while the other one appeared to be for storage, the report says.
Agents found 211 grams of marijuana, a box of sandwich baggies and rolling papers on top of one of the arcade games. A digital visual recording system also was located in the shed, as well as multiple surveillance cameras around the exterior of the residence “capturing various points of view,” the report says.
A check of Mathis’ criminal history showed that he had multiple felony convictions for robbery (Dec. 4, 1989); burglary and robbery (March 28, 1994); grand theft (Nov. 19, 1997); possession of cocaine (Aug. 4, 1999); fleeing and eluding law enforcement officers (Aug. 27, 2003); obstruction (June 20, 2005); and sale and possession of cocaine (July 17, 2009 and Nov. 17, 2001).
A criminal history check of Gunter showed that she had several arrests but no felony convictions, the report states.
Both Mathis and Gunter were taken into custody Tuesday night at the residence on SW 2nd Street. They both were charged with keeping or maintaining a dwelling used to sell narcotics, possession of heroin with intent to distribute, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of drug paraphernalia. In addition, Mathis was charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
Gunter, who has been in the Marion County Jail nine times since 1991, is being held on $51,000 bond and is due to appear in court on April 2 at 9 a.m. to answer to the charges.
Mathis, who has been held in the jail 17 times since 1994, was released Wednesday morning on $36,000 bond and doesn’t yet have a court date, records show.
UDEST is an initiative of the North Florida High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. It is comprised of local, state and federal law enforcement from the Ocala Police Department, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Drug Enforcement Administration and Department of Homeland Security.