Cops: hot car report leads to heroin bust

WASILLA — A man spotted slumped over the wheel of a car in the Fred Meyer parking lot was a drug dealer, authorities said.

Passersby first called the police to report Jesse R. Smith, 34 of Sedro-Woolley, Washington over concerns about his well being, according to an affidavit written by Wasilla Police officer Ottis Buzzard. Smith faces one count each of second-degree drugs misconduct, second-degree weapons misconduct, third-degree weapons misconduct, and fifth-degree weapons misconduct in the Palmer court.

Smith was sleeping and the windows of his car were rolled up on a hot day when passersby called to ask police to check on him on July 13. According to Accuweather data, the high temperature that day was 73 degrees.

When Wasilla Police showed up to the scene to check on Smith, he didn’t immediately respond to knocks on the window of the car. Officers could see a knife clipped to his hip pocket. When he did respond, he was “disoriented and lethargic,” police said.

“I began my conversation with him with the plan to investigate a possible DUI,” Buzzard wrote. “Because there was no smell of alcohol coming from the driver or the vehicle, I presumed that illegal drugs would be a factor.”

Smith became more alert, and began to move as though “he was going to run away,” Buzzard wrote.

In response, officers arrested and restrained Smith, and when they began to search him for weapons, they found $9,000 in cash in two bundles, a .32-caliber Tarus pistol, the knife, and a small vial. A drug dog indicated the trunk might contain illegal substances, according to Buzzard.

Police arrested Smith on an original charge of fifth-degree weapons misconduct, on the grounds that he hadn’t told them about the pistol in his back pocket, according to Buzzard.

Police also sought and obtained a search warrant for Smith’s car. Police found 11.8 ounces of a brown substance that field-tested positive for heroin, along with a scale and baggies, and a cell phone that was receiving text messages that were coming in to the phone even as police removed it from the vehicle.

“One text said the sender had someone who wanted ‘$12,000 worth…’ and another that wanted ‘$4,000 worth …’” Buzzard wrote.

A typical heroin dosage is about 100 milligrams and worth between $40 and $50, meaning the drugs from the car had an estimated street value of about $165,000, according to Buzzard.

Smith also had previous felony convictions dating back to 2007 in other states, though his July 13 arrest was his first encounter with Alaska law enforcement, according to Courtview Justice Solutions entries.

Smith remained in the Mat-Su Pretrial jail in Palmer Monday on $250,000 cash or corporate bond with a court-appointed third-party custody requirement.

His next court appearance is for a preliminary hearing scheduled for 1 p.m. on July 25.