Apparent suspicious activity leads to arrest
A report of suspicious activity in a local parking lot resulted in the arrest of a Little Rock man on felony drug charges Sunday morning.
Eddie Lee Williams Jr., 41, who lists a Little Rock address, was taken into custody at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort, 2705 Central Ave., and charged with possession of a controlled substance, cocaine, with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, and possession of drug paraphernalia, punishable by up to six years.
Williams was being held on a zero bond and appeared Monday in Garland County District Court where he pleaded not guilty to the charges. A felony review hearing is now set for Nov. 16. Williams was previously convicted on Dec. 11, 2017, in Pulaski County of two counts of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia and was sentenced to four years’ supervised probation.
According to the probable cause affidavit, at around 8:30 a.m. Sunday, Hot Springs police Officer Aaron Combs responded to Oaklawn regarding suspicious activity and was met by an employee who stated they had seen a man in a tan Buick “using drugs.”
Combs made contact with the man, identified as Williams, who was sitting in the driver’s seat of the Buick with a pocket knife in his lap, which he handed to Combs after being told to put his hands on the steering wheel.
Officer 1st Class Shane Lewis, who was assisting, noted a Remington gun case in the passenger seat and a screwdriver so they asked Williams to exit the vehicle. As he started to get out, officers saw a small straw “commonly used to sniff powdered drugs” in plain view behind Williams in the seat.
Lewis then noticed a black mask in Williams’ left hand that contained aluminum foil. It appeared Williams was attempting to pass the item in his left hand to his right hand and put it in the glove compartment. At that point, officers removed Williams “due to his erratic behavior” and the paraphernalia they had seen.
Inside the aluminum foil in the mask officers allegedly found four small packages of white powder that later field tested positive for cocaine, a total of 0.7 gram. When questioned about the drugs, Williams reportedly stated the powder “might be meth or cocaine” but he was unsure. He reportedly admitted he “snorted some of the white powder” earlier.