A Reddick woman and Palm Bay man spent Christmas in the Marion County Jail on drug charges after being found passed out in a vehicle at a gas station off Interstate 75 in Ocala.
Ashley Elizabeth Blend, 31, of 18681 N. U.S. Hwy. 441 #21 in Reddick, was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and a single count of possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. Blend spent a week behind bars in October for possession of drug paraphernalia and has three other priors, including an arrest in 2018 for giving a false name to a deputy.
John Daniel Kincaid, 37, of Palm Bay, was also charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription and a single count of possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana. He has eight prior arrests in Marion County, including one in October for possession of synthetic marijuana, possession of cocaine, possession of MDMA, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy responded Dec. 20 to the RaceTrac store at 1525 SW Hwy. 484, where the manager said Blend and Kincaid had passed out at the gas pumps for over an hour. The manager said she knocked on their vehicle window and asked them to leave, only to have them park in front of the air pumps and pass out again, according to the sheriff’s office report.
The deputy approached the red Ford SUV and told Kincaid, who was behind the wheel, that the manager requested that they be trespassed from the location. Blend was asleep in the passenger seat. The deputy tried to awaken Blend several times to check on her wellbeing and request information. Both Kincaid and Blend had pinpoint pupils and bloodshot eyes, according to the report.
The vehicle did not have a license tag attached to it. When the deputy asked why, Kincaid showed a Florida tag in the center dashboard console that he said was previously attached to the vehicle. The deputy completed the trespass warning and told Kincaid he would have to attach the tag and leave the parking lot, according to the report.
Kincaid had plenty of room to open his car door but tried to open it as little as possible and squeeze out. At the same time, Blend was reaching under the driver’s side floorboard and moving something. When told to stop reaching for anything, Blend said she was just picking up a small piece of paper, which she quickly put in her purse, the report said.
After re-attaching the tag to the vehicle, Kincaid opened the driver’s side door and the deputy observed multiple needles on the floor between the seat and the door. Asked if he was diabetic, Kincaid said he wasn’t. Based on both subjects’ drowsiness, slowed speech and bloodshot eyes, along with Blend’s attempt to conceal something, the deputy suspected the needles were being used for drugs and the vehicle was searched, according to the report.
Other deputies who arrived to assist found a bag in the center dash console containing a white powdered substance that field tested positive for methamphetamine. In the glove box was a scale, a brown cigarette and five yellow capsules in an Excedrin bottle. In the center console between Blend and Kincaid was what appeared to be a water bottle cap containing a white substance. The white substance tested positive for cocaine and the cigarette tested positive for marijuana, the report said.
A deputy searched Blend’s black purse, which was sitting on the floorboard of the front passenger seat. Inside the purse was a bag containing a white powdered substance, five blue pills in a clear plastic bag and a green leafy substance. The white substance tested positive for cocaine, the green leafy substance tested positive for marijuana, and a web search showed the blue pills were Alprazolam, which is a Schedule 4 controlled substance, according to the report.
A deputy searched the rear passenger side behind Blend ad found a small unlocked safe containing multiple baggies with an image of a female’s outline and the phrase “Heavy D” written on them. The safe also contained multiple syringes and a small spoon. A field test of the liquid on one of the syringes came back positive for heroin, the report said.
After being informed of their Miranda rights, both Kincaid and Blend agreed to speak with the deputy. Interviewed separately, neither would admit the drugs belonged to them, according to the report.
Blend was charged with possession of a controlled substance for the Alprazolam and possession of a controlled substance for the cocaine, as well as possession of less than 20 grams for the marijuana in her purse. Due to being in control of the vehicle, Kincaid was charged with two counts of possession of a controlled substance for the methamphetamine and cocaine and possession of less than 20 grams for the brown cigarette containing marijuana, the report said.
Both were still being held Saturday, Kincaid on $31,000 bond and Blend on $11,000 bond. They will appear in Marion County Court on Jan. 19.