Home Crime POLICE: Man caught growing pot in Rockingham motel bathroom

POLICE: Man caught growing pot in Rockingham motel bathroom

ROCKINGHAM — Police reportedly discovered a marijuana grow operation in the bathroom of a local motel room.

An officer with the Rockingham Police Department responding to a call about a woman screaming for help at the Economy Inn Sunday was given consent to search for “any injured persons on the scene” when the officer saw the cannabis plants in a bathroom, according to a post on the department’s Facebook page.

The department’s Narcotics Unit was contacted and investigators obtained a search warrant for the room where they reportedly found 15 plants and 123 grams (4.3 ounces) of marijuana.

Police say no injured woman was found at the scene.

Police arrested 54-year-old Kenneth Reid Jarrell and charged him with one felony count each of: manufacturing a Schedule VI controlled substance; possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule VI controlled substance; and possession of a Schedule VI controlled substance.

Jarrell was also charged with one misdemeanor count of simple possession of a Schedule IV controlled substance.

As of Monday, he was still being held in the Richmond County Jail under a $10,000 secured bond and is scheduled to appear in court Nov. 10.

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Jarrell was first convicted of misdemeanor larceny in 1986, according to records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction.

In 1993, Jarrell served 15 days of a six-month sentence when his probation was revoked on driving-while-impaired conviction from two months prior.

Jarrell’s other convictions include:

  • 2002 – assault on a female
  • 2009 – misdemeanor larceny
  • 2010 – driving while license revoked, possession of drug paraphernalia
  • 2018 – three counts of delivering or selling a Schedule II controlled substance, maintaining any place for a controlled substance

All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.



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