Parolee sentenced to prison
A habitual offender on parole was sentenced to two years in prison Monday after pleading guilty to multiple felony drug charges stemming from a raid on his residence earlier this year.
Paul Price
III, 42, who has remained in custody in lieu of bonds totaling $31,000 since his arrest April 21, pleaded guilty to possession of meth with purpose
to deliver, unauthorized use of another person’s property to facilitate a crime and possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to the maximum of
20 years on each count, with
18 years suspended, all to run concurrently.
Additional felony counts of simultaneous possession of drugs and weapons, stemming from a 20-inch sword also found at his residence, maintaining a drug premises and possession of drug paraphernalia were withdrawn.
In addition to prison time, Price was fined $2,000 for each count, for a total of $6,000, and ordered to pay $295 in court costs. His sentence will also run concurrent with the revocation of his parole from a 2014 conviction.
Price is classified as a habitual offender, having been convicted Dec. 27, 1999, in Garland County, April 21, 2007, in Bossier City, La., June 27, 2011, and Aug.
14, 2012, both in Garland County, all for possession of a controlled substance, and on Feb.
10, 2014, in Garland County for possession of a firearm by certain persons and unauthorized use of another person’s property to facilitate a crime. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison after his 2014 conviction.
According to the affidavit, on April 21, shortly after 6 a.m., investigators with the Hot Springs Police Department’s narcotics unit and S.W.A.T. team executed a “no knock” search warrant on Price’s residence at the time in the 400 block of Bower Street and found Price and a female, 41, in an upstairs bedroom.
Asked if there were any narcotics in the house, Price told investigators there was “a little” near where he was sleeping. When told investigators had purchased narcotics from him recently using confidential informants, Price said he “didn’t doubt it” because he regularly sold narcotics to support his own habit.
When asked about the female, he said he had met her the day before at a convenience store and let her spend the night because she had nowhere else to go. The female corroborated his story and was later released.
Investigators found a syringe, 0.7 gram of meth and a tin can with residue in the living room. In the bedroom, the investigators found five more syringes, two sets of digital scales, three smoking pipes, a baggie with 7 grams of meth, and an eyeglass case containing a spoon, two syringes and a baggie with meth residue.
They also found a 20-inch long sword “within arm’s reach” of the meth, the affidavit states.