SALINE CO.— One of the area’s more notorious (not to mention homely) dope enthusiasts has found herself back behind bars after claiming she just didn’t know there was a meth lab in the trunk of the car she was driving.
Carolyn “Butter” Glore McGhee, 43, fresh off the back page headlines in the April-May edition (where she was linked up with former pharmacist Steve Patton) as well as fresh off her recent probationary period (interestingly enough, on her birthday, March 25) is back in the headlines again and with a mugshot that helps define her nickname (“she’s a good-lookin gal as long as you look at everything ‘butter’ face.”)
The latest chapter in the area’s Skank Chronicles began April 20, at 11:12 p.m. when Eldorado patrolman Ryan Ward was on routine patrol of the Ferrell Hospital clinic on the corner of Pine and Grant streets in Eldorado when he spotted a white vehicle with Missouri plates sitting in the parking lot with three individuals in it.
Because he had taken drug activity reports in the area and behind the clinic, he pulled into the parking lot.
Shortly thereafter he saw a female get out of the car on the driver’s side and a male get out of the passenger side and switch places.
Ward identified the male as Raymond R. Zepeda, 39, of 327 West Holmes St., Chester.
When Ward asked Zepeda what he was doing in the parking lot, Zepeda told Ward that he was dropping off the female, identified as McGhee, of 801 Sahara St., Harrisburg and then he and the passenger, identified as Alisha C. Lawrence, 30, of West Washington Street in Carrier Mills, were going to head to Chester.
When Ward asked McGhee what they were doing, she said they were going to her boyfriend’s Arnold Henson and the reason they were parked at the clinic was because she didn’t like Alisha.
McGhee said she had been to Fountainview Nursing Home and Alisha said she and Zepeda had been at her dad’s, Dean Harris.
Stories don’t match
Ward informed the trio their stories didn’t match.
When he asked the three if any of them had anything illegal on their person Zepeda and Lawrence said no, but McGhee said she didn’t have anything but her mom’s legendary prescription Lortabs (these are what got Patton nabbed in federal court last year dating back to incidents in 2012; see the April-May 2015 print issue or e-Edition for the full report).
McGhee then showed Ward a pill bottle with the name “Agnes Hopkins” on it.
When asked who Agnes Hopkins was, McGhee said she sits with her mother and that she left her valiums at the house and that she was going to return them to her but she wasn’t home tonight.
“I explained to McGhee that it is illegal to possess another person’s prescription medication,” Ward said, then sat her down on a nearby curb.
When Ward searched the vehicle subsequent to McGhee’s arrest, he found the motherlode of methamphetamine products in the trunk.
“When I got in the trunk I located a backpack with Liquid Fire, Clean Out drain opener, a cold pack with ammonium nitrate removed, salt and coffee filters,” Ward said in his written report.
That’s about the time Lawrence and Zepeda were also taken into custody.
Lawrence told Ward that Zepeda knew what was in the trunk of the car.
The old Crown Royal stash
Lawrence also admitted she had drug paraphernalia in her pants.
When she was asked to remove the items, she pulled out a Crown Royal bag (generally considered the accessory for dope dealers to have as a carryall), which contained five syringes, a digital scales, a glass smoking stem and a small plastic container that had in it small pieces of cotton that tested positive for meth.
The bag also contained a small red plastic container with a small amount of liquid in it that tested positive for meth.
Lawrence also admitted that she had used meth at 4 p.m. that afternoon.
Zepeda said the backpack with the meth lab in it belonged to Lawrence and Jessie Davidson and that he didn’t know it was there.
He said he’d used meth last a couple days prior and that they had been at Dean Harris’ house talking about “having some squares” and planned to go cook some meth.
McGhee said she didn’t know the meth lab was in the truck of the car or she wouldn’t have been driving.
Histories and charges
Zepeda, who has no criminal history to speak of in Saline or Randolph counties, was charged with Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Precursors and Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacture Materials.
Lawrence was charged with Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Precursors, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacture Materials, Unlawful Possession of Meth and Unlawful Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
McGhee, who has the previous conviction from September 20, 2012 of Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance (for which she was sentenced to 30 months probation and ordered to pay $5,043.02 in fines and fees, of which she still owes $2,303), was charged with Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Precursors, Unlawful Possession of Methamphetamine Manufacture Materials and two counts of Unlawful Possession of a Controlled Substance.
Cash bond in all three of their cases was set at $3,000 each.