August 18, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
A joint undercover drug investigation over several months by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, Smithville Police Department, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in grand jury indictments against several persons accused of illegally selling narcotics including methamphetamine.
A special session of the DeKalb County Grand Jury met last Monday, August 12 to consider cases presented by both departments and the TBI. Sealed indictments were returned in those cases.
Several defendants have already been arrested and more arrests are forthcoming. The arraignment date for them in criminal court is August 21.
“Chief Mark Collins and I met earlier in the year and formed this task force in order to combine our resources and for each department to know what the other was doing regarding drug investigations. We will continue that effort and use every resource we have to stem the flow of drugs in DeKalb County. We are proud to be working together,” said Sheriff Patrick Ray.
According to the sheriff, drug roundups have to be managed better these days due to the lack of available jail space.
“With only 52 certified beds, a challenge we have at the jail is to not go over that amount and have to put prisoners on the floor. In this case, we had to do some maneuvering. We also had to restrict some of the indictment arrests because we can’t just go out and pick up 50 or 60 people at one time because it would cause overcrowding,” said Sheriff Ray.
“We currently have 27 inmates that are farmed out to other jails, and we are paying from $45 to over $55 per day per inmate and at an average of $50 per day per prisoner with 27 inmates that comes to $1,350 per day to taxpayers and over a 30-day period its over $40,500 per month,” Sheriff Ray explained. “ Its very expensive housing inmates out of the county. We still have to leave bed space open for arrests made daily such as for DUI’s and public intoxication’s, etc. We also have quite a few people who are on medical watches in our holding cells and probably some of these new arrests (from the drug indictments) will have to be put on a medical watch because they will likely be coming off the drugs they are on. It’s very challenging for us here at the jail to be able to do drug roundups like this but we have to still fight the drug and crime problems and if we should go over our 52-bed capacity, it’ll have to be that way. We can’t stop doing our job,” added Sheriff Ray.
Arrests made from the drug indictments last week are as follows:
55-year-old Alphonso Dewayne Maynard of Restview Avenue, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams. His bond is $75,000. Offense date November 29, 2023
50-year-old Shawn Edward Soales of Blue Springs Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. His bond is $125,000. Offense date November 28, 2023
37-year-old Rickey Wilbert Hendrixson of Midway Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. His bond is $125,000. Offense date January 24, 2024
30-year-old Richard Wayne Norrod of Calhoun Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams. Bond $125,000. Offense date November 29, 2023
65-year-old Ricky Lee Dowell of Wade Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams and sale and delivery of a schedule III drug (Buprenorphine). Bond $150,000. Offense date February 20, 2024
32-year-old Joshua McAllen Beckham of White Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams (3 counts each). Offense dates November 29, 2023, December 21, 2023, and December 28, 2023; Separate indictment for sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. Offense date February 24, 2024; Another separate indictment for sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. Offense date March 22, 2023. Total bond $225,000
37-year-old Troy Lee Cunningham of Jefferson Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) (2 counts each). Total bond $225,000. Offense dates January 18 & 24, 2024
44-year-old Brandon Edward Smith of Cooper Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams (2 counts each). Bond $175,000. Offense dates February 21 & 26, 2024