Photo: Cody James Mills
A Cotter man appeared during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Monday and changed his plea to guilty on drug-related charges filed against him during a three-day span in August last year.
Twenty-five-year-old Cody James Mills’ first arrest stemmed from a compliance visit at his residence along Dalton Avenue in Cotter Aug. 14. At the time, Mills was an active probationer.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the visit was triggered by “numerous reports” of alleged drug activity at the residence.
A number of law enforcement agencies were involved, including the 14th Judicial District Drug Task Force.
Prior to the arrival of the officers, Cotter Police Chief Travis Hopson reported observing another probationer, 31-year-old Michael L. Cox, outside the residence meeting with another man. Hopson said the two men were reaching under an overhanging section of the siding covering the house.
Photo: Michael L. Cox
After the compliance search began, officers located an open plastic bag of new syringes stuffed behind the siding in the area where Cox and the unidentified male were seen standing.
Officers initially surrounded the residence and knocked “for several minutes” before announcing their presence through the open door.
According to court records, Cox replied he was asleep.
After coming in contact with the officers, he told them he stayed with Mills “off and on” and had spent the previous night at Mills’ home.
Mills was reported not to have been at the residence during the compliance visit.
Officers found a closed circuit television system in a bedroom of the house and a number of items of drug paraphernalia piled on the bed, including multiple sets of digital scales.
Mills was charged with several counts of possessing drug paraphernalia. Two of the charges were felonies and one a misdemeanor. The affidavit contains no information on when Mills was arrested.
The second set of charges stemmed from a traffic stop Aug. 17. According to the probable cause affidavit, a vehicle, in which Mills was a passenger, was pulled over by a Mountain Home Police officer for “improper lane usage.”
Two of the three people in the vehicle were reported to have been on active parole at the time of the stop with waivers on file permitting warrantless searches.
Officers reported finding a substance field testing positive for methamphetamine in a female passenger’s purse.
The woman admitted the purse was hers, but said that the methamphetamine belonged to Mills. She said when the people in the vehicle became aware an officer was behind them, Mills put the drug into her purse, along with placing a knife in a leather case.
Mills was charged with possession of methamphetamine stemming from the traffic stop.
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