ROCKINGHAM — A search of a home in East Rockingham on Wednesday turned up meth and marijuana.
According to the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, investigators executed a search warrant at a residence on Mill Street and found 2.3 grams of meth and 3.4 grams of pot.
The occupant, 46-year-old John Kelsey Watkins, was arrested and charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of marijuana and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Watkins was booked into the Richmond County Jail on a $2,500 secured bond and appears to have since been released. His court date on those charges is currently unknown.
Online court records show Watkins has pending charges — two counts of possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance and one count of possession of drug paraphernalia — from 2021.
Records with the N.C. Department of Public Safety Division of Adult Correction show Watkins has a criminal history dating back nearly 30 years, spending about a third of that time incarcerated.
In 1994, Watkins was convicted on two counts each of assault with a deadly weapon and damage to property, as well as a single count of injury to real property.
The following year he was convicted of possession with intent to sell a Schedule II controlled substance.
Watkins was convicted in 1999 of assault inflicting serious injury, and in 2004 of assault on a female and two counts of assault by pointing a gun, all in Guilford County.
Also in 2004, he was convicted of possessing stolen goods back in Richmond County.
His most recent conviction was in 2012 on two counts of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury and possession of a firearm by a felon.
All defendants facing criminal charges are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
