Two Marion County men were jailed Monday night after they were stopped by a Marion County sheriff’s deputy after leaving an Ocala motel.
The deputy stopped a 1995 white Toyota sedan after the driver failed to stop while pulling out of the Queen’s Garden Resort, located at 3351 S. Pine Ave. As the deputy was checking the identification of the driver and his two passengers, 20-year-old Michael Joseph Pent, of Summerfield, and 28-year-old Christopher Paul Ray Graves, of Silver Springs, a sheriff’s K-9 performed an open-air sniff and alerted on the vehicle, indicating the likely presence of narcotics, a sheriff’s office report states.
While conducting a search of the vehicle, deputies located several shards of a white crystal substance on the back-seat floorboard where Pent had been sitting. A deputy reported that the substance, which field-tested positive for methamphetamine, appeared to have been freshly broken up, the report says.
Deputies found a small plastic baggie containing a white crystal substance that tested positive for methamphetamine in the glove compartment within reach of where front-seat passenger Graves had been sitting. They also located a glass pipe under the center console, a scale with residue on it on top of the center console and two glass pipes inside a gray duffel bag in the back seat behind where Graves had been sitting, the report says.
Both Pent and Graves were placed under arrest and transported to the Marion County Jail. Pence was charged with possession of a controlled substance without a prescription (methamphetamine). He was being held on $2,000 bond and is due in court Sept. 22 at 9 a.m.
Graves was charged with possession of methamphetamine and possession of drug equipment. He was being held on $3,000 bond and also is due in court Sept. 22 at 9 a.m.
Pent is no stranger to the Marion County legal system, having been arrested in May after a shooting at a Summerfield residence. The victim told deputies that Pent had been “rolling up marijuana” while a gun was on his lap. He said the gun fell to the floor and Pent picked it up and it went off. He said he didn’t remember what happened after that but he left to go seek medical treatment, a sheriff’s office report states.