HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The three people arrested on Sept. 16 after police were called to the 600 block of West 11th on the report of suspicious activity were back before a judge Wednesday morning for the formal reading of charges.
Thirty-two-year-old Orlando Cornelius, 32-year-old Adina L. Smith and 39-year-old Sylvester Givens are all three charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of marijuana. Cornelius is also charged with criminal possession of a firearm.
Both Smith and Givens deny knowing anything about the drugs, pretty much putting all of it on Cornelius.
The case starts with police arriving and an officer seeing a vehicle in an alley behind the home.
The calling party stated during a second call that one of the individuals in the car had a handgun. The officers, after making a traffic stop, asked the three to step out of the vehicle one at a time so they could check for weapons. As Cornelius was starting to exit the vehicle, an officer alleges that he made a jerking motion with what he believes was the gun and then put his legs outside the vehicle. The officer then alleges he saw a .40 caliber Smith and Wesson handgun on the floorboard of the vehicle. Cornelius denies he made any such motion.
They arrested him and allegedly found drugs along with a scale and other paraphernalia inside a console of the vehicle, which led to the arrest of the other two.
Smith and Cornelius are both free on bond, while Givens is jailed pending him posting a $6,000 bond.
The cases against the three will move to a future waiver-status docket.