Two men were given prison time during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court Thursday.
Michael Andrews, who is already an inmate in the Brickeys Unit of the state prison system on an earlier conviction, pled guilty to drug charges and was given a sentence of five years in prison.
The 23-year-old Andrews latest arrest came in mid-October last year when Mountain Home Police went to a local motel for what was described as a property dispute.
An officer spotted a vehicle coming from the area of the room where the dispute was alleged to be taking place. Andrews was driving the car and the officer was aware that he had a suspended drivers license.
A traffic stop was made and the Mountain Home drug dog was brought in and alerted on the vehicle Andrews was driving. According to court records, a plastic bag was located under the drivers seat that contained a quarter gram of suspected methamphetamine, and a black pouch containing what was also suspected to be methamphetamine was found.
Andrews and his passenger, who had an outstanding warrant, were both jailed. When Andrews was being booked into the jail, it was discovered that he had concealed two more plastic bags containing 4.7 grams of methamphetamine on his person.
Andrews had three drug arrests in 2015. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison in mid-November of 2015 on all three cases. He was released from the chronically overcrowded state prison system in June 2016 after serving slightly more than six months of that sentence and was back in Baxter County where he re-offended in October of 2016.
By picking up the new charge, Andrews violated parole and was sent back to prison.
Joseph Christler of Mountain Home was sentenced to six years in prison with three suspended after pleading guilty to a fourth offense of driving while intoxicated.
The 35-year-old Christlers last DWI arrest came on December 20, 2015 when his erratic driving caught the attention of a Baxter County Deputy Sheriff.
After a short pursuit, Christlers red 2004 Dodge pickup truck turned into a driveway at a high rate of speed, cut between several trees and came to rest in another yard near a carport and several other trees. According to the probable cause affidavit, Christler told the deputy that, at the time of the incident, he was traveling from one bar to another.
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