TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A traffic stop resulted in drug charges being filed against a man and a woman who were both wanted on out-of-state warrants.
William Bernett Edwards, 49, and Leslie Barclay Marchant, 58, were arrested Thursday and booked into the Leon County Detention Center.
Florida Highway Patrol troopers stopped the van the two were in after seeing a van on Thomasville Road following too closely behind another vehicle and changing lanes without using a turn signal.
As the trooper walked to the driver's side of the van, he saw the driver and front right passenger changing seats, the trooper wrote in a probable cause affidavit.
The trooper said the driver, Edwards, "showed extreme signs of nervousness" and "was breathing heavy, stuttering his words and would not make eye contact with me while I was talking to him."
Marchant, the front-seat passenger who switched seats with Edwards, showed the trooper her Georgia driver's license and, responding to his question, told him she knew of nothing illegal in the van.
The trooper's canine alerted on the van as having drugs, the trooper wrote.
Marchant asked if she could get her purse from the van, but the trooper said she could not and gave her permission to get her phone. The trooper said the woman appeared to stall in getting the purse and finally put it down and he put her in the rear of his trooper's vehicle.
The trooper also placed Edwards in the rear of his vehicle.
Both Edwards and Marchant spoke while in the rear of the trooper's vehicle, the document said. The trooper wrote that Marchant said the bowl (glass pipe) was in her purse and Edwards said "tell them we just bought the truck a week ago and we can't help what is in the truck."
Searching the van, the trooper said he found in Marchant's purse a glass pipe of the kind used for smoking methamphetamine. The trooper also found about four ounces of methamphetamine in a man's winter style beanie and one gram of marijuana in a cigarette pack.
In a driver's side door storage pocket, the trooper found a black digital scale and in between the front driver's seat and front passenger seat he found a small bottle of liquid THC.
Edwards was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, trafficking in methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana under 20 grams and possession of marijuana over 20 grams.
He had three outstanding warrants: two for violation of probation and one for criminal trespass.
Marchant was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia and also had an active warrant for violation of probation. She was described in the booking report as an out-of-state fugitive from justice in Decatur County because of a shoplifting charge.
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