Grand jury indicts area man facing meth charges and child endangerment
A Linden, Texas, man accused of leaving a methamphetamine-filled syringe near the feet of a young child was indicted Thursday by a Bowie County grand jury. William Green, 35, was driving a black Dodge Ram pickup northbound at approximately 9:30 p.m. Jan. 13 on state Highway 259 when he was pulled over for a nonmoving violation, according to a probable-cause affidavit used to create the following account. Bowie County Sheriff’s Deputy Westin Fannin, who stopped the truck, reportedly saw a small package being thrown out the passenger-side front window after turning on his cruiser’s lights.
The deputy noticed Green was shaking nervously when the driver asked to speak with the deputy at the front of the patrol car, according to the affidavit.
“He advised me that he was an informant for Texas DPS (Department of Public Safety) narcotics and asked me for a favor on the stop,” the affidavit states. “I noticed that he had slurred speech and was acting if he was trying to talk quietly.”
Green was cuffed and ordered to sit on the ground while the deputy interviewed the pickup’s passenger. The passenger claimed Green threw something out the window after asking the passenger to roll it down. Four children, ages 8, 3, 2 and 1, were unrestrained inside the truck.
When Fannin walked back to where Green was sitting, he allegedly found a package of suspected meth on the ground that appeared to have been
chewed on and coated in what appeared to be saliva. A bag of suspected marijuana was allegedly found about 10 feet from the roadway.
Inside the glove box of the truck, deputies recovered two syringes wrapped in a Sonic restaurant apron. A syringe containing a liquid allegedly was found on the driver’s side of the truck “on its end, with the needle end facing up, on the transmission hump,” the affidavit states.
“There was a child seated in this area of the vehicle and his legs were hanging down beside where the syringe was located,” the affidavit states.
Both the substance in the syringe and the crystal-like substance in the allegedly saliva-covered plastic bag field-tested positively for methamphetamine.
Green was indicted Thursday on charges of possession of methamphetamine under a gram and child endangerment. Each offense is a state jail felony punishable by six months to two years in a state jail.