Photo: Christina Ann Copes
Izard County authorities have arrested a woman on a felony drug charge following a one-vehicle crash Jan. 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Christina Ann Copes was the driver of the vehicle, but reportedly told law enforcement her husband was behind the wheel. Unfortunately for her, law enforcement was aware Copes’ husband was being held in the Izard County Detention Center at the time of the crash.
According to the probable cause affidavit, law enforcement and emergency medical personnel responded to the crash about noon on Campground Road in Oxford.
First responders initially reported no one was at the crash scene where a car had left the roadway and traveled through a barbed wire fence into a field. When a deputy arrived, he reported observing a woman staggering in the roadway, making exaggerated movements and rambling incoherently.
Copes maintained her husband had been the driver of the wrecked car, and she did not know where he was. She said her husband, who the deputy knew was already incarcerated, had let her out of the vehicle at her request prior to the crash.
When asked where she got out of the vehicle, Copes reportedly pointed to the Oxford fire chief and said she had exited the vehicle in front of his house. However, the fire chief does not live in the area of the crash.
Copes made no mention of her 10-year-old daughter being in the wrecked vehicle. The child had left the scene and traveled to a nearby residence, advising those at the home she had been in a wreck with her mother who was unresponsive.
The girl told law enforcement she had been riding in the front seat of the vehicle with her mother driving. She said her mother’s eyes began “rolling,” and she began “shaking.” The girl said she grabbed the steering wheel, but was unable to move her mother’s foot from pressing the accelerator. The car then crashed through a fence.
A search of Copes’ purse at the detention center reportedly led to the discovery of a small amount of a white crystalline substance appearing to be methamphetamine, along with drug paraphernalia.
In addition to a felony count of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, methamphetamine, citations were issued to Copes for endangering the welfare of a minor, DWI drugs, failure to maintain control, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana.
Her bond was set at $10,000.
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