| County attorney takes stand against alleged pot
growers; case sent to grand jury
by SHELDON COMPTON
Staff Writer
PRESTONSBURG — Following testimony from Floyd County Attorney
Keith Bartley, the cases against two Floyd County men accused of
cultivating a patch marijuana on the county attorney’s property were
referred to a grand jury Wednesday afternoon.
During his
testimony, Bartley said he identified 30-year-old Prestonsburg
resident Terry Jarrell on the videotape police helped him place on
his property, but could not identify Steven Hunter, 22, also of
Prestonsburg.
Jarrell had been working with a contractor on the
construction of Bartley’s home at Abbott Creek, the county attorney
said, adding that he first heard rumor of the alleged harvesting
through a Prestonsburg business owner.
“They told my wife that
these boys were out there bragging about growing pot around my
house,” Bartley said, “so me and my wife went up to the house and
actually looked around the outside of my house. Of course we didn’t
find anything.”
Bartley said it was after that when he agreed to
pay two neighborhood boys a $200 reward if they could locate any
marijuana along his property.
“They came back and showed me where
it was, and, of course, I paid them the reward,” Bartley said
Wednesday.
Hunter, who was represented by public advocate Mike
Studebaker during the preliminary hearing Wednesday, was arrested
shortly after Jarrell after the latter got a visit from Kentucky
State Police Detective Randy Hunter, who also testified during the
hearing Wednesday.
Hunter testified that he visited Jarrell’s
home and that Jarrell initially denied any wrongdoing, until after
viewing the tape, which Bartley testified depicted both Jarrell and
Hunter cutting buds from the seven marijuana plants found along the
property.
After seeing the tape, Hunter said Jarrell then
confessed and named Hunter as an accomplice in the alleged scheme.
Hunter, who Bartley said lived only about 50 feet from Jarrell,
was arrested shortly afterwards.
Studebaker questioned Bartley as
to the nature of a confession the county attorney testified was
witnessed, as well. Bartley told the court both men had confessed to
planting and cultivating the plants, but that no audio, video or
written record of that confession was ever taken.
Studebaker
asked that Hunter’s $7,500 bond be lowered to a 10 percent surety
bond, considering that a family member had $750 to offer toward the
amount, but was denied after Commonwealth’s Attorney Brent Turner,
who stood in for a testifying Bartley, objected to lowering the bond
because of the nature of the charges.
District Judge Eric Hall,
who presided over the hearing, agreed and denied Studebaker’s
motion.
Representing Jarrell, attorney Jimmy Webb waived the
hearing and saw his client’s case referred to a grand jury as
well.
Det. Hunter said the plants, which were approximately
shoulder-high, had been growing along Bartley’s property for
probably about three
months. |
