Photos: Casey Lynn Merriman and Mathaniel Campbell
A Norfork woman frequently caught up in her live-in boyfriend’s criminal activity and arrests entered a guilty plea to a variety of drug-related charges during a session of Baxter County Circuit court Jan. 23.
Forty-four-year-old Casey Lynn Merriman was put on probation for 10 years.
She was charged with possessing drugs, including fentanyl, Alprazolam and marijuana, as well as paraphernalia used to ingest the drugs.
Merriman was arrested in December 2018 and July 2019. Both times, the main focus for law enforcement had been her live-in-boyfriend, Nathaniel Campbell.
In the mid-December 2018 arrest, officers made a compliance visit to Campbell’s address along Major Street in Norfork. The visit was made after a confidential informant purchased methamphetamine from Campbell.
Merriman was arrested when drugs and drug paraphernalia were found inside a bedroom and in other areas of the residence shared by the couple.
Offices reported finding 108 Alprazolam pills, a small quantity of marijuana and a substance suspected to be methamphetamine.
At the time of the arrest, Campbell denied he had sold methamphetamine, but claimed being aware Merriman was selling the drug.
Merriman was arrested again in mid-July last year when the Arkansas Community Corrections Fugitive Task Force went to a home along Rodney Cutoff Road looking for Campbell who was a fugitive at the time.
As officers pulled into the long driveway leading to the residence, Campbell is alleged to have fled into the woods, leaving Merriman behind.
Officers reported finding fentanyl inside a hidden compartment inside the staircase of the residence and a spoon bent in a fashion associated with intravenous drug use.
They also found methamphetamine and butane/propane torches associated with smoking certain drugs.
In the bedroom shared by Campbell and Merriman, officers also located 37 Alprazolam pills and marijuana.
Campbell was arrested about two weeks after fleeing from the fugitive task force. He is serving a 10-year prison sentence and is an inmate in the Randall Williams Correctional Facility in Pine Bluff.
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