A 37-year-old Mountain Home man pled guilty to the charges against him during a session of Baxter County Circuit Court/Criminal Division Monday (July 7) and was sentenced to 10-years-probation.
Dale Anthony Malcevicz was arrested in late August when a Mountain Home police officer on routine patrol spotted a gray Toyota pickup truck and followed it until it pulled into a “random residence” where the lights were extinguished.
The truck was reported to have left the driveway and began traveling at a high rate of speed. The vehicle was eventually intercepted at the Mountain Home Inn.
Malcevicz, who was reported to be the driver, was said to be “very nervous.” It was discovered that Malcevicz was on probation with a search waiver on file allowing for a warrantless search of his person or property.
During a search of the vehicle, driver and passengers, a substance field-testing positive for methamphetamine was located along with Adderall capsules.
EARLIER ARRESTS
Malcevicz learned a hard lesson in late May when after being arrested, he asked an Arkansas State Trooper to retrieve the keys to his vehicle.
He asked that the keys be given to his girlfriend who was also staying at the Executive Inn. The trooper obliged, but as soon as he opened the door, he saw a small bag of methamphetamine sitting in plain view.
It was all downhill from there.
After the trooper saw the suspected drug sitting in the truck, he went to Malcevicz and asked if there were other illegal items in the vehicle.
Malcevicz confirmed the trooper would find such items. According to the probable cause affidavit, the trooper did locate more methamphetamine in a black container and several glass smoking pipes.
Events leading up to his arrest began after an Arkansas State Trooper saw that the license plate on Malcevicz’s tan Toyota pickup truck had expired.
The trooper initially saw the truck parked at the mid-town location of Casey’s General Store and followed it to the parking lot of the Executive Inn.
While tailing the truck, the Trooper confirmed that the license plate had expired and also found that Malcevicz had an active arrest warrant issued by the Gassville Police Department.
When the trooper pulled into the motel parking lot, he arrested Malcevicz on the active warrant.
Malcevicz is charged with possession of methamphetamine and paraphernalia used to ingest the drug and traffic infractions including having expired tags and not having liability insurance.
Malcevicz was on active supervision. He was sentenced to 72-months-probation after pleading guilty to charges stemming from the theft of items from vehicles parked at a Mountain Home movie theater.
The parking lot incident happened during a three-day period in March 2022. Items reported stolen included a handgun, cellphones, watches, laptop computers, wallets, purse, debit/credit cards and cash.
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