MOULTRIE — The prosecution pulled out another win this week in Superior Court in which the defense called into scrutiny investigative work by the Moultrie Police Department (MPD).

Wednesday, a Colquitt County jury found Lonnie L. Jenkins, 25, 1515 Fourth Ave. N.E., guilty of cocaine possession with intent to distribute at the intersection of Sixth Street Southeast and Hillcrest Avenue on March 20. In addition, he was convicted of misdemeanor marijuana possession and failure to stop at a stop sign.

Jenkins will be sentenced June 12 before Superior Court Judge Frank Horkan.

On March 20, 2006, Jenkins was pulled over after he ran a stop sign at 7:30 p.m. He got out of the 1984 beige Oldsmobile Cutlass he was driving and ran, but before he did, he looked back directly at the officer, testimony said. Although it was dark, there was enough lighting from the patrol car’s headlights and auxiliary lights to get a good look at him, former MPD Officer Jerry Gaskins testified. Gaskins was outside his vehicle and about 20 feet away from the defendant when he looked back, he said.

Gaskins set off in chase of Jenkins but couldn’t catch up to him, so he returned to the abandoned vehicle at which point he noticed an overwhelming odor of marijuana smoke in the Cutlass, he said, so much so it made him sick. Gaskins called in Officer Carly Davis to assist.

Davis searched the car and found two pieces of crack cocaine, a marijuana roach in the ashtray, small plastic baggies in the glove compartment, scales, a medicine bottle of prescription pills with the label ripped off and Jenkins’ driver’s license under the front seat. Shift Supervisor Sgt. Roger Cook also arrived to assist and found a razor blade on the passenger side of the vehicle, he testified.

The next day, Toni Jenkins, the defendant’s mother and owner of the Cutlass, went to the police station and asked where her car was. The officers informed her it was not stolen but had been impounded. Investigator Alfred Anderson testified that Jenkin’s mother said she would bring her son to the police department, since he had been seen driving the car.

Assistant Public Defender Catherine Smith criticized the inadequacy of investigation, lack of detail in reports and lack of reports altogether, she said. No attempts were made to fingerprint the car or the evidence. No supplemental reports were taken by the assisting officers. No attempts were made to contact Toni Jenkins regarding her car that night or ask her who had been driving it, Smith pointed out.

Another drug suspect pleads guilty

In another felony case disposed this week before Judge Horkan, Randy Huckaby, 29, 1306 Summer Circle, pleaded guilty to cocaine possession and was sentenced to five years probation and one year in jail with credit for time served. He was indicted on cocaine possession with intent to distribute and marijuana possession with intent to distribute, court records said.

Up until his plea, three other people also faced charges in the same case. Charges now are dropped against Mary J. Haynes, 24, 1311 Summer Circle; Lashonda D. Haynes, 26, Berlin; and Jonathan D. Ryles, also known as John Black, 25, 1029 Second Ave. N.W.

Black has been held in jail more than a year since the arrest March 10, 2006, and was denied bond because he was on probation, court officials said.

The arrests were the result of a morning raid on Huckaby’s home by the Moultrie-Colquitt County Drug Enforcement Team (DET) and SWAT. An informant tipped off agents that a large amount of illicit drugs had been moved from the house, earlier reports said.