On Monday, August 12, a special called session of the DeKalb County Grand Jury met where a taskforce comprised of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, Smithville Police Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation presented cases, which included several drug indictments.

“Chief Mark Collins and I met earlier in the year and formed this task force where we could put our resources together, so one department knew what the other department was doing,” said Sheriff Patrick Ray. “We will be continuing that effort and try to use every resource we have to combat the drugs that are here in DeKalb County. We are proud to be working together.”

Sheriff Ray said local law enforcement is facing some big challenges doing these roundups, but said it’s just something the Sheriff’s Department and City Police have to do.

“A challenge we have here at the jail, we only have 52 certified beds, so we’re trying not go over that amount and have to put prisoners on the floor. We had to do some maneuvering around to get this done. We also had to restrict some of the indictment we have because we can’t just go out and pick up 50 or 60 people at one time because it would cause overload the jail,” said Sheriff Ray.

“We currently have 27 inmates that are farmed out to other jails, and we are paying from $45 to over $55 per day per inmate. If you average that at $50 per day with 27 inmates that comes to $1,350 per day that it cost taxpayers. In a 30-day period its over $40,500 per month,” Sheriff Ray explained.

“It’s very expensive housing inmates out of the county. We just have to do what we can do here. We still have to leave bed space open for arrests made daily such as for DUI’s and public drunkenness.  We also have quite a few people that are on medical watches that are taking up our holding cells. Some of these people will have to be put on a medical watch because they will likely be coming off the drugs they are on. It’s very challenging for us here at the jail to be able to do drug roundups like this. Chief Collins and I have talked about it and we’re going to have to start making some drug indictment arrests. We can’t just keep holding them back. If we should go over our 52-bed capacity, we’ll just have to do that,” added Sheriff Ray.

Sheriff Ray announced the following people have been arrested under sealed indictment through the roundup.

On August 14, 55-year-old Alphonso Dewayne Maynard of Restview Avenue, Smithville, was arrested for two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess under 0.5 grams for a case that occurred on November 29, 2023. His bond is set at $75,000 and he will be in court on August 21.

Also arrested in the case was, 50-year-old Shawn Edward Soales of Blue Springs Road, Smithville, was arrested for two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess under 0.5 grams. He is under a $125,000 bond and he will be in court on August 21.

Rickey Wilbert Hendrixson, 37, of Midway Road, Smithville, was arrested for two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess for a case that occurred on January 24, 2024. His bond is set at $125,000 and he will be in court on August 21.

On August 15, Richard Wayne Norrod, 30, of Calhoun Street, Smithville, two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess under 0.5 grams. The offense date was November 29, 2023. His bond is $125,000 and he is due in court on August 21.

That same day, 65-year-old Ricky Lee Dowell of Wade Street, Smithville, was arrested for two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess over 0.5 grams and two counts of sale and delivery of a schedule III drug (Buprenorphine). He is under a $150,000 and will be in court on August 21. His offense date was February 20, 2024.

Also on August 15, 32-year-old Joshua McAllen Beckham of White Street, Smithville, was arrested on six counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess over 0.5 grams, for offense dates of November 29, 2023, December 21, 2023, and December 28, 2023.

Another indictment alleges two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess over 0.5 grams, for a case that occurred on February 24, 2024. And yet another indictment alleges two counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess over 0.5 grams, that occurred on March 22, 2023. He is under a total bond of $225,000, and he will be in court on August 21.

On August 16, 37-year-old Troy Lee Cunningham of Jefferson Road, Smithville, was arrested for four counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess, for case that occurred on January 18-24, 2024. He is under a $225,000 bond and will be in court on August 21.  

That same day, 44-year-old Brandon Edward Smith of Cooper Street, Smithville, was arrested on four counts of methamphetamine manufacture, delivery, sell, or possess under 0.5 grams, for incidents that occurred on February 21-26, 2024. He is under a $175,000 bond and will be in court on August 21.