PHOTO: Jacob Swadley and Rachel Harrelson
Two of three family members arrested when drug paraphernalia, unlicensed tattoo equipment and part of a rotting deer carcass were found in and around a Gassville residence were declared fugitives when they did not appear in Baxter County Circuit Court Monday
Arrest warrants were issued for 30-year-old Kip Swadley and his brother, 21-year-old Jacob Swadley.
In addition, their father, 51-year-old Kevin Swadley and a houseguest, 29-year-old Rachel Renee Harrelson, who was reported to have been with Jacob Swadley, were also charged as a result of a compliance visit in early November last year.
The father and Harrelson were not due in court Monday.
PHOTO: Kevin Swadley and Kip Swadley
Probation and parole officers went to the Swadley residence located along Peacock Lane to conduct a compliance visit on Kip Swadley. He had been put on six years probation after being convicted in an earlier case.
The officers reported finding about 20 devices used for ingesting drugs in the residence. The residue in two of the devices field-tested positive for methamphetamine. Most were said to have been used for smoking marijuana and/or THC wax.
THC is the main psychoactive property in marijuana. The wax is a concentrate that can contain THC levels equivalent to 15-20 marijuana cigarettes.
A variety of tattoo equipment was found in the living room and the bedroom occupied by Kip Swadley
He is alleged to have admitted to investigators the equipment belonged to him.
It is illegal in Arkansas to be in possession of such equipment without a license and the equipment can only be used in a permanent shop.
Offices also found a cooler in the yard of the residence containing “part of a deer that had been butchered and allowed to spoil.”
No one in the residence claimed to have any knowledge of the cooler or how it had gotten to the residence.
An officer with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission was informed about the deer parts.
The people at the residence were all charged with possession of drug paraphernalia. Kip Swadley is also charged with unlawful possession of the tattoo equipment, a Class A Misdemeanor.
The three Swadley men along with Harrelson all entered not guilty pleas to the charges against them late last year.
In his initial case, Kip Swadley was sentenced to six years probation after a bench trial in late February last year.
According to the probable cause affidavit in the earlier case, Kip Swadley was one of three people fed incorrect information, sending them to the wrong home in search of an allegedly stolen rifle in mid-September 2019.
Instead of retrieving the firearm, two of the men Kip Swadley and 30-year-old Greg “Tony” Garreans ended up on the ground with a pistol pointed at them by a frightened, angry homeowner.
The homeowner said Garreans was banging on the front door of his residence along Ben Nevis Drive in Briarcliff in the early morning hours. Garreans and Kip Swadley were reported to have been armed with 12-gauge shotguns.
The homeowner told responding deputies he answered the door with gun-in-hand and “convinced” Garreans and Swadley to lay down their weapons.
A third man, known only as Alex, who was said to have been armed with a Samurai-style sword, fled the scene after seeing his two companions being held at gunpoint. He has not been found as yet.
According to the probable cause affidavit, the entire episode was based on bad information. Garreans told deputies he had found his AR-15 rifle missing on the morning of Sept. 19, 2019 and believed a houseguest had taken it.
A neighbor told Garreans he had talked with the houseguest on the telephone and that the man and the stolen weapon were at the residence along Ben Nevis Drive.
That turned out not to be true and Swadley and Garreans ended up flat on the ground, being held at gunpoint and in trouble with the law.
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