HAMLET — A man who reportedly tried to run from police officers is facing several drug and weapon charges.
According to the Hamlet Police Department, officers responded to a call Saturday morning of a suspicious vehicle at Golden Rule on Hylan Avenue.
When officers made contact, the suspect, 39-year-old Latron Jermaine Dumas, “attempted to flee but was apprehended,” according to a post on the department’s Facebook page. (Note: online records show his middle name also spelled as “Germaine.”
Following a search of Dumas’ person and vehicle, officers reportedly found a loaded handgun of an unspecified caliber in his pants pocket, as well as 24 grams of meth and 10 grams of heroin.
Dumas was arrested and charged with: felony possession of a Schedule II controlled substance; trafficking in opium or heroin; possession of a firearm by a felon; carrying a concealed gun; maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance; assault on a government official; and having an open container of alcohol in the passenger area.
He was booked into the Richmond County Jail where he is being held under a $150,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court on those charges March 10.
Online court records show Dumas also has a March 2 court date on traffic citations for speeding and driving with a revoked license.
Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Dumas received probation when he was first convicted in 2001 of armed robbery, felony breaking and entering.
In October of 2003, Dumas was convicted of maintaining any place for a controlled substance. His probation was revoked that December and he served six months behind bars, records show.
He was convicted in 2007 of driving while impaired in Montgomery County, and the following year of possession of a Schedule II controlled substance in Richmond County.
Dumas’ probation on the DWI was revoked in 2008 when convicted of possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance and resisting an officer. Those sentences were concurrent and he served less than three months. His probation on the 2008 drug charge was revoked in 2011, resulting in a nearly four-month incarceration.
Dumas was also convicted in 2013 of shoplifting in Moore County, and in 2014 of driving with a revoked license in Richmond County.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
