Photo: Stephany Louise Elliott
A tip that a riding lawnmower reported stolen from an area church could be located at a residence along Dupont Lane in the Gassville area, led lawmen to the home of 53-year-old Stephany Louise Elliott in mid-July. The mower was found during a search of the property, as well as methamphetamine and paraphernalia used to ingest the drug.
Elliott appeared during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court last week and pled guilty to charges of theft by receiving, possession of drug paraphernalia and tampering with evidence stemming from the search.
She was put on probation for 10 years and ordered into the 14th Judicial District Drug Court Program. She will first spend time in one of the Community Correction Centers in the state to undergo addiction treatment.
According to the probable cause affidavit, an investigator reported finding a small plastic bag containing suspected methamphetamine, along with items of paraphernalia used to ingest the drug in the home. The investigator said he placed the plastic bag on a table and photographed it before returning to the search. When he came back to collect the drug, it had vanished. It was believed Elliott either destroyed or hid the methamphetamine. They looked for the packaged drug without success.
Elliott was on probation from an earlier drug-related case at the time of the 2019 search.
She had been put on four years probation in mid-March last year, after being arrested and charged as the result of a somewhat unusual encounter with a Mountain Home plainclothes officer in late August 2017. The officer, who worked with the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force, reported traveling on Arkana Road when he saw a car parked sideways in the driveway of a home. He said he also observed a woman, later identified as Elliott, walking toward the vehicle carrying a car battery.
The officer said he had known the residents at the address for some time, and knew the woman did not live there. It was at this point, Elliott made a giant mistake when she offered to share her methamphetamine with the out-of-uniform officer, if he would help get her stalled vehicle running again. When the policeman initially encountered Elliott, she is reported to have said, “Thank God, I need a jump, my car won’t start.”
As the officer pulled along Elliott’s vehicle, he called a colleague requesting assistance, since Elliott appeared to believe the plainsclothesman was at the residence to buy drugs.
Elliott seemed to be under the influence of a chemical substance. She was reported to have been walking around the yard of the home calling a dog named “Annabell.”
When the MHPD officer got out of his vehicle and approached Elliott she asked, “You’re not a cop, are you?” The policeman said he was and asked Elliott if she had anything illegal on her person. She was reported to have pulled her left front pant pocket out to reveal a small plastic bag containing a white crystalline substance testing positive for methamphetamine. She was also found to have a bag containing 59 “Xanax bars” on the driver’s seat of her vehicle. In addition, the “lost” dog Annabelle was found inside the vehicle where she had apparently been the entire time.
Elliott admitted she was a daily meth user and had purchased approximately one-half gram the day before the encounter with the officer. She said the drug in the bag was all she had left from the purchase.
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