October 25, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
A suspected drug dealer who was arrested in February after a joint investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Smithville Police Department has been sentenced in criminal court.
36-year-old Gary Christopher Ponder entered a plea on October 13 to a charge of possession of a schedule II drug, Fentanyl with intent to sell and received a six-year sentence all suspended to supervised probation except for one year to serve. He was fined $2,000. Ponder was given credit for 249 days served.
Ponder was one of two people busted during this investigation which netted between the two more than 103 grams of Heroin and Fentanyl along with other narcotics. The case against the other defendant, 62-year-old Tommye Lou Bell remains pending in court. Bell and two others were later indicted for 2nd degree murder and possession of Fentanyl and Cocaine with intent to sell in a separate case from December 2021 in which a drug related death occurred.
In the Ponder case for which he was sentenced on October 13, Sheriff Patrick Ray and Police Chief Mark Collins said that “On Sunday, February 5, 2023 in a joint operation with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the Smithville Police Department, two search warrants were served at two different addresses including the homes of Bell and Ponder”.
The warrants against Ponder alleged that he sold to a confidential source working for the Smithville Police Department 3.3 grams of Heroin on February 2 and 14 grams of Heroin on February 5.
“At Bell’s home we found (marijuana) edibles with too high of a THC amount to be legal in Tennessee. There were 26 baggies of a white powdery and red powdery substance believed to be Heroin and Fentanyl totaling 103.31 grams with a street value of $15,000. We also seized morphine and diazepam pills, $20,000 in cash, a 2021 Honda CRV, and a Glock 43 nine-millimeter handgun and ammo,” said Sheriff Ray and Police Chief Collins.
According to the warrants against Bell, the search of her home turned up 26 baggies of a powdery substance believed to be Heroin/Fentanyl that weighed an estimated 103.31 grams, a variety of marijuana products including 28 bags of a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana that weighed 7.4 ounces: 10 baggies of edibles (marijuana), four jars of marijuana cigarettes, and four tubes containing marijuana joints. Two- 30 milligram morphine pills and 3.5 diazepam pills were also found and collected at the residence along with numerous baggies, scales, and other paraphernalia, a Glock 43 nine-millimeter pistol and ammunition, an estimated $20,000 in cash, and a vehicle.
Meanwhile, in a separate case, 56-year-old Bradley John Baker entered a plea to attempting to deliver a schedule II drug and received a four-year sentence all suspended to TDOC supervised probation. He was fined $2,000 and given jail credit from September 15, 2023 to October 13, 2023.