HILLISTER – A recent traffic stop resulted in a pair of arrests of two travelers in the Hillister area.
Tyler County Sheriff Bryan Weatherford said that deputies with the Tyler County Sheriff’s Office were patrolling the area on the morning of Friday, July 31, when they stopped a Nissan Altima for a traffic violation on US 69 at County Road 4450.
Weatherford said that deputies immediately could detect the odor of marijuana from inside the vehicle, and saw a hypodermic needle with what appeared to be blood inside of it, in plain sight. The driver, Jason Nesbitt, a 49-year-old Palestine resident, and the passenger, Barbara Steele-Jones, a 36-year-old Texas City woman, both were searched. A search of Jones’s purse turned up two small, clear plastic baggies containing a white crystalline substance which field-tested positive for methamphetamine.
While speaking with Nesbitt, the deputies learned that he is a convicted felon, and had most recently been convicted under a charge of unlawful possession of firearm by a felon, a charge which he would find repeated, as a Smith & Wesson 9-.mm handgun was turned up underneath the driver’s seat.
Both Nesbitt and Jones were taken into custody and transported to the Tyler County Jail. Jones was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance for the 2.4 grams of meth and Nesbitt was charged with felony unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon.
Their bonds were each set at $50,000 by Pct. 3 Justice of the Peace Mike Hughes, and both remain in custody.
