October 4, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
A Springfield woman had her day in court last Friday, September 29 on charges of evading arrest and promotion of the manufacture of methamphetamine.
36-year-old Kaleigha Beth Arnold entered a plea to the offenses and received a sentence of four years in the meth case and one year for the evading charge to run concurrently but all suspended to supervised probation except for one year to serve. She was fined $2,000. The sentence is also to run concurrently with a White County case against her.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on Saturday May 6 a deputy was traveling east on Highway 70 when he spotted a silver Honda Pilot fail to maintain its lane of travel. He had the license tag checked through central dispatch and learned that the car had been stolen in Smithville. The officer got behind the vehicle and turned on his emergency lights and sirens but the driver, Arnold failed to stop. He then started a pursuit of the car east on Highway 70 and along the way Arnold passed and almost hit several other vehicles. As the pursuit left DeKalb County, White County deputies assisted in trying to get the fleeing car to stop by putting down spike strips near Old Kentucky Road but even with a successful deployment of the spike strips the car continued east and rammed two White County patrol cars causing damage to both vehicles. Officers of both the DeKalb County and White County Sheriff’s Departments eventually stopped the car and removed Arnold from the vehicle.
According to Sheriff Ray, Arnold admitted to having stolen the car, having taking heroin two hours prior to driving, and having been in possession of narcotics and drug paraphernalia. A search of the vehicle turned up a black zip up bag containing a glass mason jar with used and moist brown paper towels, clear tubing, a glass beaker wrapped in black electrical tape with residue. Coffee filters were also found in the interior zip up pocket of the bag as well as red phosphorous and several matchbooks all normally used in the production of methamphetamine.
Sheriff Ray said officers also found in the car two syringes, a glass pipe with residue, scales and other items used for narcotics as well as a gray zip up container with several tools and a lock pick kit used to gain access to the vehicle. On the driver side, Sheriff Ray said officers found a red, black and green rubber container that held an orange-colored substance believed to be heroin. In the center console was a red Swisher Sweet package containing 34 yellow pills thought to be Gabapentin.
Arnold has two prior convictions for simple possession and a driving on a suspended license offense in Robertson County in December 2022 for failure to satisfy fines. Because she appeared to be intoxicated or high at the time of her arrest, Arnold was charged with driving under the influence, and she refused to submit to a blood test resulting in a charge of violation of implied consent.