An unemployed Ocala man was arrested Wednesday after a Marion County deputy ran a check on the car he was driving and discovered that its owner had a suspended driver’s license.
After stopping the 2013 Nissan Altima in the parking lot of the Pilot Travel Center at 2020 SW Hwy. 484, the deputy noted that he smelled a “strong odor” of marijuana coming from the car as he was speaking with 19-year-old driver Caleb Bryan Johnson. The deputy also said he observed “what appeared to be a stem and green substance” in the car’s cup holder next to the driver’s seat.
When asked about the marijuana odor and the substance, Johnson denied there was any in the car and said he doesn’t smoke the drug, a sheriff’s office report states, adding that the deputy watched Johnson brush away the remnants of a green leafy substance on his white T-shirt.
Johnson told the deputy that the vehicle belonged to his sister and he didn’t know anything about the smell of marijuana in the car.
Before the deputy searched the car, Johnson first denied any knowledge of marijuana in the vehicle but then said it was under the armrest. But he insisted that it belonged to his sister, the report says.
A search of the vehicle revealed a clear baggie containing a green leafy substance, a cigarillo wrapper that had a “nugget” of the same substance on it, a folded piece of paper containing a small amount of the substance and a bong/water pipe with residue on it, the report says.
After field tests on the green leafy substance that weighed 31 grams and the residue on the bong tested positive for marijuana, Johnson again told the deputy that it belonged to his sister. He was placed under arrest a short time later and transported to the Marion County Jail, where he was booked into the facility at 6:25 p.m.
Johnson was charged with possession of marijuana over 20 grams and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was released on $3,000 bond at 12:07 a.m. Friday and is scheduled to appear in a Marion County courtroom Aug. 14 at 9 a.m.
