Oxycodone cases go to grand jury

Local News

August 13, 2009

By Bill Robinson The Richmond Register Thu Aug 13, 2009, 07:42 AM EDT

The case of a Detroit man whom Richmond police say brought an estimated $64,000 in oxycodone pills to Madison County with the help two local accomplices is going to a grand jury.

After hearing testimony from RPD Detective Eric Short in a Wednesday preliminary hearing, Madison District Judge Charles Hardin found probable cause to send the case against Aaron Rodney Byrd, 33, to a grand jury. He is charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance.

Byrd’s two alleged accomplices — Jonathan Rory Todd, 25, of Richmond, and Whitney Cleste Agee, 19, of Waco — also were in court, but their cases were continued.

Acting on an informant’s tip, Short said he and another officer followed Todd and Agee to Cincinnati on Aug. 5 where subjects picked up Byrd at the Greyhound Bus station.

The three then headed south on Interstate 75. After the car, which Agee was driving, crossed into Madison County, Short said it was stopped for an alleged traffic violation by an RPD patrol car and then parked at the Clays Ferry Travel Plaza.

Short said he arrived on the scene soon afterwards, as did other RPD officers and a K-9 officer from the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.

The drug-sniffing dog was led around the vehicle, Short said, and it indicated an illegal substance might be in the trunk.

The officers then searched the vehicle and allegedly discovered about 645 oxycodone tablets wrapped in a pillowcase inside a suitcase belonging to Byrd, the detective said.

A small plastic bag of marijuana and drug paraphernalia also were found in the car, according to an RPD news release issued the day after the arrests.

Byrd claimed ownership of the pillowcase, Short said, but denied any knowledge of the pills. The detective said Agee claimed to have “no idea what was going on.”

All three were charged with trafficking, while Byrd also was charged with marijuana possession. Agee also was charged with several traffic offenses and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Hardin reduced Byrd’s bond to $5,000 cash, and he remained in custody Wednesday evening.

Todd and Agee were released not long after their arrests, each on a $15,000 cash or property bond.

OXYCODONE, WEAPONS CASE

About 600 oxycodone tablets, possibly imported from Florida, and eight pistols were at the heart of another case given a preliminary hearing Wednesday.

Kentucky State Police Detective Brandon Curlis testified that a “cooperating witness” allowed troopers to set up a fake drug buy, which led them to the alleged drug and weapons stash in a local home.

Curlis said troopers observed Frank S. Dehne, 22, and William R. Owen, 29, go to the Days Inn near I-75 Exit 90, where Owen went into a room and a small quantity of drugs changed hands. After Owen came out, he and Dehne drove to the home of Dehne’s mother, Minnie Dehne, 52. After a short time inside the house, Curlis said, the two men drove to the Shell station parking lot near the motel, where another, larger drug sale took place.

The two suspects were then arrested, and the KSP obtained a warrant to search the home, Curlis said.

The troopers discovered the pills in a closet, the detective said, along with $8,000 in what he called “buy money,” and a laptop computer, later determined to be stolen.

Curlis said the pistols were found in the home’s basement. A check of one pistol’s serial number revealed that it had been reported as stolen. The serial numbers of the other seven weapons had been grinded away.

Curlis said Minnie Dehne gave a statement admitting ownership of the pills.

“I guess they’re all mine, since you found them inside the house,” he quoted her as saying.

In a later statement, Curlis said she told investigators the pills had come from Florida.

The other two defendants also had given statements, the detective said.

Frank Dehne denied involvement in drug trafficking, Curlis said, admitting only that he knew his mother and Owen “had something going on.”

Minnie Dehne is charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, possession of a defaced firearm, first- and third-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, receiving stolen property, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Frank Dehne is charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance, possession of a defaced firearm and receiving stolen property.

Owen is charged with first-degree trafficking in a controlled substance.

All three were bound to the grand jury and remained lodged Wednesday evening in the Madison County Detention Center. The Dehnes each were held on $20,000 cash bonds. Owen was under a $10,000 cash bond.

CHURCH BURGLARY

The case of Harold Gilbert, who twice allegedly broke into the First Baptist Church on the Eastern Bypass last month without taking anything, also was bound to a grand jury.

After his July 29 arrest, Harold Gilbert, 42, told Richmond police he was homeless.

RPD Detective Rodney Richardson testified that Gilbert was arrested after he viewed the church’s surveillance video recordings that showed the suspect inside the building in the early morning hours of July 16 and 29.

Gilbert is “well known” to him, the detective said, and Gilbert was located and arrested later in the day.

The videos show Gilbert breaking windows and climbing into the building, Richardson said. Interior videos, which police said clearly reveal Gilbert’s identity, show him trying locked office doors inside the church, the detective said.

When he was arrested, Gilbert was wearing the clothes he had on inside the church, Richardson said. The suspect had sustained cuts from breaking the windows and his clothes still were blood stained, he said.

He remained lodged in the detention center Wednesday evening under a $2,500 cash bond.

Bill Robinson can be reached at brobinson@

richmondregister.com or

at 624-6622.

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