BY DAN HILDEBRAN
John M. Erwin, 49, of Starke, was sentenced to a year in jail followed by a year of probation after pleading to DUI, possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
According to an arrest report, on September 12, a Starke KOA Campground worker noticed a gray Chevrolet Silverado parked at the business’s front door rather than a parking spot.
When she asked the driver to move the truck, Erwin struck a parked golf cart.
“(The complainant) advised the driver seemed confused about where he was or where he was supposed to be,” wrote Deputy Devin Jones in an arrest report.
When Jones asked the defendant why he was at the campground, he replied that he was meeting his boss, who lived at the KOA. However, when Erwin called his supervisor, the employer told him he lived and worked in St. Augustine.
The defendant then told Jones that he lived in the campground, which the KOA worker verified.
Jones’s supervisor arrived on the scene and conducted field sobriety tests on the defendant, and based on those tests, the officers arrested Erwin.
While performing an inventory of the Chevrolet prior to it being towed, the officers found a pipe, which Sergeant Jared Mallard wrote was commonly used for smoking marijuana. The officer reported that he also found a small baggie with blue, oval pills.
“Next to the pills was a glass pipe commonly used for smoking methamphetamine and a clear plastic baggie with a white crystal-like substance inside,” the sergeant added.
The two officers said they found two blow torch-style lighters, which they said were commonly used for smoking methamphetamine, in the defendant’s pockets. They also found a pill bottle in which blue pills had been crushed into a powder-like substance.
The officers identified the pills as alprazolam, a prescription medication used to treat anxiety and panic disorders.
“A presumptive field test kit on the glass pipe and a clear plastic baggie with a white crystal substance inside indicated a positive result for methamphetamine,” one of the officers wrote.
At the jail, the defendant blew 0.00 twice in a breath alcohol test.
Erwin’s prior convictions include trespassing, driving with a suspended or revoked license, possession of less than 20 grams of marijuana, issuing a worthless check, forgery, battery, and assault.
