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MONTROSE -- A Randolph County woman faces felony charges after allegedly fleeing from police with another man while on the way to deliver drugs.
Michelle Lea Hawkins, 29, of Elkins, is charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of possession with intent to deliver, both felonies. She is currently being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail for these charges on a $50,000 cash-only bond set by Randolph County Magistrate Tracy Harper.
According to the criminal complaints, filed by Trooper Thomas J. Sclimenti with the West Virginia State Police Elkins Detachment, on Aug. 2, Sclimenti was informed by Patrolman D. Sayre of the Elkins Police Department of a tip regarding Jordaan Lee Slawter being in the Montrose area. Sclimenti was aware that Slawter had active felony warrants from back in May.
Sclimenti observed a vehicle matching the description to Slawter’s vehicle, and followed from a distance until Sayre’s informant confirmed that Slawter was driving the vehicle, the complaint states. The vehicle took “an abrupt” left turn onto the U.S. 33 on-ramp to Kerens, then Clifton Run Road. Sclimenti, Sayre and Trooper Stewart all initiated their blue emergency lights to begin a traffic stop. The vehicle then “accelerated” down Clifton Run Road and continued where the road turned to gravel. The vehicle was traveling at approximately 50 mph and failed to yield at a stop sign leading onto Stalnaker Run Road.
The vehicle then moved to the left of the roadway to evade being blocked, the complaint states. Deputy Elbon with the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office maneuvered his truck across the roadway, where the vehicle collided with the front end of his cruiser. When Elbon exited his cruiser, believing the vehicle to be disabled, he instead observed the vehicle driving out the other side of the field it had ended up in. The vehicle continued at high rates of speed, reaching over 85 mph on a 55 mph road, on U.S. 219. It failed to yield at the Kerens on-ramp intersection and continued on U.S. 219. The vehicle allegedly attempted to brake check Sayre’s cruiser “on at least one occasion.”
The vehicle then traveled onto the Old Mill Road/Israel Church Road, and came to a left hand curve in the roadway, the complaint states. Overshooting the hard surface, the vehicle entered into a muddy ditch and lost control, ending up in an overgrown field on the right hand of the roadway.
Both occupants exited the vehicle, with Sayre detaining the female occupant, identified as Hawkins, the complaint states. Sayre directed Sclimenti as to where Slawter has allegedly fled. Sclimenti followed crushed vegetation until it became “indistinguishable from wildlife trails” and he did not observe Slawter leaving the tall grass. Hawkins, who allegedly had identified the other occupant as Slawter, told police that Slawter was armed with a pistol.
On Aug. 3, Sclimenti escorted the vehicle’s owner to Dawson’s Towing Yard to retrieve her vehicle, the complaint states. The owner gave consent for Sclimenti to search the vehicle, where he reportedly observed a glass pipe “commonly used in the consumption of methamphetamine” within the center console. He also allegedly located a large amount of foil strips “commonly used to store and consume narcotics,” a brown coin purse containing a “white crystalline substance consistent with methamphetamine” and a bundle of foil containing a “white powdery substance consistent with fentanyl.”
According to the complaint, on the same date, Trooper H.J. Bonetti obtained a Mirandized statement from Slawter where he allegedly stated that he and Hawkins had received a gram of “slow,” which Sclimenti writes is slang for fentanyl, from another subject. Slawter reportedly said that he and Hawkins were going to give the “slow” to someone in Morgantown because they did not have the “appropriate connections” to get rid of it themselves. He allegedly confirmed the foil bundle Sclimenti had found was the “slow” they had been given and that Hawkins had placed it in the foil. Slawter also reportedly told police the “slow” had been given to him in a bag and Hawkins was supposed to discard it when they fled the vehicle on Aug. 2. Hawkins herself allegedly told police she thought the foil contained methamphetamine for personal use.
Slawter, 28, of Huttonsville, has been charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of possession with intent to deliver, both felonies. He is currently being held at the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on a $50,000 cash-only bond set by Randolph County Magistrate Tracy Harper.
In June, Hawkins was indicted by a Randolph County grand jury on two counts of failure to appear, a felony.