Photo: Johnny Howard Gordey
A Lakeview man, who was released from prison March 19 last year and found himself back in trouble just 24 weeks later, is now in custody after being declared a fugitive July 1.
The fugitive status for 52-year-old Johnny Howard Gordey resulted from him not showing up for multiple sessions of Baxter County Circuit Court to accept a negotiated plea in a 2020 drug case.
During the final time Gordey’s name was on the docket, the attorney then representing him, Ben Burnett, told the court, “We have been here three times to take this plea, but right now I can’t tell the court where (Gordey)is.”
A failure to appear warrant was issued in July. According to the Baxter County jail log, Gordey was booked into the facility Nov. 19.
There is no information in the case file to indicate where Gordey was during the four-month period during which he was not showing up for court.
Burnett withdrew from the case in October, saying he has had no contact with Gordey since June 30.
Gordey’s arrest in his newest drug case came Sept. 2 last year, after information was developed that there was alleged drug activity going on at his residence along Willingham Road.
In his earlier drug case, Gordey was sentenced to 12 years in prison in May 2017 on charges of selling methamphetamine to a confidential informant working with law enforcement.
He was released from prison after serving less than three years of his sentence. The early release was made under provisions of the Emergency Powers Act passed to relieve overcrowding in the chronically overcrowded state prison system.
The parole in the earlier case has now been revoked, according to electronic records.
According to the probable cause affidavit in his most recent case, officers went to the camper trailer where Gordey had lived since leaving prison to investigate information concerning alleged drug activity.
Because he was on parole in the 2017 case, Gordey had signed a waiver allowing warrantless searches of his person and property.
Officers reported that when they knocked, they could hear movement in the camper-trailer. It took Gordey several minutes to answer the door.
Gordey was found to have hidden a glass smoking pipe in his pants. The pipe was alleged to have contained methamphetamine residue.
There were a number of small plastic bags on a table, described as the type used to package and sell methamphetamine. A small quantity of a substance field testing positive for a mixture of both methamphetamine and fentanyl was found inside the bathroom.
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