WARRANT: Crack found in East Rockingham home

ROCKINGHAM — A suspected drug dealer was released from jail the same day investigators searched his home.

According to a search warrant affidavit, drug detectives with the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office were told in late June by a confidential informant that he had bought crack cocaine from a home on Church Street in East Rockingham.

The informant told investigators that his dealer sold the drugs from his bedroom or sometimes had a middle man waiting outside with the merchandise, court documents show.

Investigators made a controlled buy with the informant who purchased “a quantity of substance resembling crack cocaine,” according to the affidavit.

The suspected dealer was identified as Kevin Oliver Stewart.

Investigators executed the search warrant at 2:17 p.m. July 1.

According to the inventory sheet, they found:

• 8.2 grams of crack cocaine on the floor and a digital scale in the master bedroom
• A RG-23 .22-caliber LR revolver with six rounds and a silver pipe in the bathroom
• Another .22-caliber firearm outside in a van
• $170 in U.S. currency, 0.4 grams of crack cocaine and two State Employees Credit Union bank cards on Stewart’s person.

Stewart was arrested and charged with three felonies: possession of cocaine; possession with intent to manufacture, sell or deliver cocaine; and maintaining a vehicle, dwelling or place for a controlled substance.

He was also charged with a misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Stewart was given a $25,000 secured bond and released on bail later that day, according to court records.

He is scheduled to appear in court July 16.

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