Drinking a beer while stopped at a traffic light would never seem like a good idea. Add a handgun and marijuana in the floorboard to the mix while being a convicted felon, and that is a recipe for a return trip to jail.
Tabyous Drequan Grimes was in Jones County Superior Court June 2 to enter a guilty plea to the charges of possession of a firearm by a first offender probationer and possession of marijuana. He received a total sentence of five years with the first year served in confinement with credit for time served in custody from April 7.
Grimes was on probation at the time of his recent arrest for 2017 charges of conspiracy to commit armed robbery. He entered a guilty plea to those offenses Feb. 22, 2018, and received a sentence of 10 years with the first three years to serve. The plea was entered under the first offender act.
The defendant’s April 7 arrest on the new charges violated that probation and his first offender status. As a result, Grimes was adjudicated guilty and resentenced in that case to 10 years with one year to serve in prison.
The order states the time Grimes served in prison for his First Offender sentence will not count toward the new one-year to serve sentence.
The defendant shall, however, receive credit for probation time served on his First Offender Sentence. Grimes’ service of a year in prison on the new charges shall begin as of April 7.
A report of Grimes most recent arrest by Gray Police Department Lieutenant Jacob Hunnicutt states that he was at a traffic light at the intersection of Gray Highway and the Gray Bypass April 7 when he noticed a blue F-150 stopped next to him. He said he also observed the driver pick up a can of beer and put it up to his face.
The officer performed a traffic stop on the vehicle. He said he asked the occupants of the truck about the beer can and the smell of marijuana. Grimes was a passenger in the vehicle and told Hunnicutt the beer was his. The driver claimed the marijuana, but the ownership of the gun fell to Grimes.
Both the driver and the passenger of the truck were placed under arrest.
A report of Grimes’ 2017 arrest by Jones County Deputy Travis Walker stated he was dispatched to the Dollar General on Shurling Drive at 9 p.m. Sept. 13, 2017, in reference to suspicious individuals at the scene. He arrived to see Grimes with a hoodie over his head and a shirt covering his neck and chin. The deputy said the suspect had his hands in his pockets.
Walker said he immediately drew his weapon and ordered Grimes to his vehicle and told him to put his hands on the bumper. He explained that he reacted in that manner due to the subject’s attire, hidden hands and time of day.
Walker said Grimes was charged with criminal attempt to commit robbery. He said an employee of the store was implicated in the plan and charged with conspiracy to commit a felony.
The deputy said the person who called in the suspicious persons alert was a store employee who saw the suspect outside the store. He said employees were on alert because of numerous robberies that had taken place in the area.
