A Mountain Home man appeared in Marion County Circuit Court Wednesday and pled guilty to charges filed against him in Baxter and Marion Counties.
Fifty-five-year-old Michael Hess was sentenced to 3 years in prison with the sentences to run concurrent with each other. Hess was arrested in Baxter County in mid-June after drugs were found in his vehicle during a traffic stop.
After the stop was made, a Mountain Home police officer found Hess had a search waiver on file and Hess and his passenger, 35-year-old Tommy Gattis, were asked to leave the vehicle so it could be searched.
Before the men got out another officer noticed Gattis “trying to rub a substance, later identified as methamphetamine, into the carpet with his shoe.”
A “noticeable amount” of suspected methamphetamine was observed on the passenger seat and floorboard.
Gattis is alleged to have reported that the drug had been in a small cellophane bag and that Hess had dumped it when they were being pulled over.
Hess is charged with possession of meth and tampering with physical evidence. Gattis also faces charges stemming from the incident.
The new charges in Baxter County triggered the filing of a petition to revoke Hess’ three-year probation sentence in a Marion County drug case.
Hess was arrested in late November 2022 when officers went to the residence of a Flippin man along Park Street in Flippin who was on parole to conduct a compliance visit.
The officers went into the residence and found one man asleep on the couch, one in the bedroom, a female who was “shooting up” with a syringe still stuck in her arm and Hess.
Hess told officers he shared a room with one of the females living in the house.
According to the probable cause affidavit, most of the people found at the residence were either on parole or probation or had active warrants issued on them.
Various items of paraphernalia, including syringes and smoking pipes, were found in various parts of the house.
Hess was sentenced to 36 months-probation in mid-July 2023 and the petition to revoke that probation was filed in mid-June after the new charges had been brought in Baxter County.
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