Monitor Editor
STARKE— A 38-year-old Starke man was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading to driving and drug charges.
Joshua Allen Matthews pleaded no contest to the Jan. 14 offenses of sale of a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and to the Sept. 27 offenses of possession of a controlled substance without a prescription, driving with a suspended license, possession or use of drug paraphernalia and resisting an officer without violence.
Matthews also pleaded no contest to the Feb. 20 offenses of possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell, sale of a controlled substance, use of a two-way communications device while committing felonies and possession or use of drug paraphernalia.
According to court documents, Matthews sold 0.7 grams of methamphetamine to a sheriff’s office confidential source on Jan. 14.
In a separate sworn complaint, Detective Jake Whitehead wrote that a sheriff’s office source called the defendant on Feb. 20 to buy methamphetamine. Whitehead added that Matthews sold 0.9 grams of the drug to the informant.
In a Sept. 27 arrest report, Deputy Archie Crews wrote that he was patrolling in the Paradise Lake area near the Clay-Bradford County line when he saw the defendant pass him in a red Chevrolet truck.
Crews wrote that he knew Matthews’s license had been suspended, so he conducted a traffic stop at a nearby convenience store. After Matthews pulled over, he jumped out of the pickup and ran.
“A foot pursuit was then initiated,” wrote Crews. “Once within distance, I deployed my agency-issued taser.”
Crews added that one taser probe struck the defendant in the left elbow and the other in the left thigh.
The deputy said that after placing Matthews in his patrol vehicle, he found Alprazolam in the center console of the defendant’s truck.
