By Carl Keith Greene / Staff Writer
Alleged drug dealers were caught going in both directions through Williamsburg Tuesday.
In the very early hours of the day, a drug-laden vehicle was stopped heading north at the 13-mile marker on I-75.
At about 11 p.m. that same day, at the 9-mile marker, Officer Brandon Prewitt stopped another drug-laden vehicle, this one heading south.
During the morning stop, Officer Shawn Jackson had spotted the car swerving on the highway and making improper lane changes.
When he stopped the vehicle, bearing five men, he began to interview them individually. The driver told him he and his friends were on their way back from vacationing in Cocoa Beach, Fla.
The next man he questioned said they had been to a family member’s funeral in Florida.
Men numbers three, four and five, gave three more completely different stories, Jackson said.
All five men were eventually charged with drug related offenses.
But the story develops a bit more.
While interviewing one of the suspects, Jackson spotted something that turned out to be two prescription bottles of narcotics stuck in the waistband of his trousers.
Questioning of the quintet continued and it was determined that the men had been to a pain clinic in Hollywood, Fla., and were heading for their home in Millersburg in Bourbon County.
The five were officially arrested and placed in cruisers, then the situation took another turn.
Chief Wayne Bird noticed that one of the arrested men appeared to be unresponsive, Jackson said.
Capt. Todd Shelley, Bird and Jackson removed him from the cruiser and took him off the shoulder of the interstate highway. Emergency services was called for and Jackson, himself a trained Emergency Medical Technician, began rendering first aid.
Jackson learned that James Willoughby of Paris, Ky., was breathing shallowly at a rate of about four breaths per minute.
Jackson determined that Willoughby had a strong pulse.
When EMS arrived, Willoughby was treated for narcotics overdose and taken to Baptist Regional Medical Center.
From a room at the hospital, Willoughby supposedly told Bird and Jackson that in an attempt to conceal drugs from police, he had consumed about 80, 30-milligram oxycodone tablets.
As it turns out, his concealment was in vain. The drugs he took had been prescribed to him by a physician and his possession of them was not a crime.
He was charged with public intoxication and cited to court. Other charges are possible and pending against him, Jackson said.
Also arrested were the driver, Adam L. Baker, 27, who was charged with driving under the influence, careless driving, no seatbelt, no insurance and first-degree possession of a controlled substance.
James Petit, 38, was charged with public intoxication, first-degree possession of a controlled substance and tampering with physical evidence.
John T. Manly, 26, was charged with public intoxication and first-degree possession of a controlled substance, as was Jason Bennett, 29. All four were from Millersburg.
Later that night, Clayton E. Babb, 21, and Jonathan W. Holmes, 23, of Greeneville, Tenn., were stopped at the 9-mile marker heading south.
Babb was charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, driving under the influence and non-illumination of his car’s rear license plate.
Holmes, the passenger, was charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, first-degree fleeing or evading police, first-degree wanton endangerment and public intoxication.
Babb and Holmes got in trouble when Williamsburg Officer Brandon Prewitt stopped them because the light that illuminates the car’s plate was not turned on.
When Prewitt questioned Babb, driver of the car, Babb allegedly told him he had smoked marijuana earlier in the day. Prewitt reported that Babb seemed nervous and anxious.
Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Officer Landry Collett arrived at the scene to assist. Collett and his drug-detecting dog, Ben, conducted a search around the vehicle and Ben noted the presence of drugs.
Collett and Prewitt searched the vehicle and allegedly found 119 tablets, thought to be 80-milligram oxycodone tablets, with an estimated street value of $12,000.
During the search, Holmes, in an effort to flee the police, darted into oncoming traffic, crossed four lanes of traffic and down a 20-foot embankment on the northbound side of the interstate highway.
After a brief struggle with Collett and Williamsburg Officer Mike Taylor he was taken into custody.
Collett sustained a minor injury in the chase, but told his compatriots he would “be back on duty” the next day.
In his investigation Prewitt learned the men were on their way to Greeneville from Detroit where they had allegedly picked up the narcotics.
The pair, as was the quartet arrested earlier that morning, were taken to the Whitley County jail.
