Two traffic stops are costing Deric Holt of Mountain Home more prison time.During a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday, Holt, who is already in prison on an earlier conviction, pled guilty to drug-related charges stemming from traffic stops and was given eight additional years.
He is currently an inmate at the North Central Unit of the state prison system at Calico Rock and appeared in court in his white prison uniform.
The 37-year-old Holt was first stopped by a Gassville police officer May 29th. According to the probable cause affidavit, the officer knew that Holt had a suspended driver’s license and should not be operating a motor vehicle.
The officer also reported he had information Holt had a “hiding spot” in his truck behind the missing passenger side airbag in the dashboard where he was said to hide drugs and occasionally a handgun.
In that hiding spot, the officer found a small plastic bag containing a substance that field-tested positive for methamphetamine, a used hypodermic needle, Suboxone film and a Xanax pill.
At the time of the late May stop, Holt was on felony probation.
The second traffic stop was made by an Arkansas State Trooper July 19th. In that stop, the initial problem was that Holt was not wearing a seatbelt, but when the trooper was given permission to search the vehicle, a plastic bag containing a small amount of methamphetamine was found between the seat and the console. At first, Holt claimed the drugs were not his because the vehicle he was driving was not his.
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