A Little Rock man who complained that authorities made him wait too long for a police drug dog to arrive and search his car failed Wednesday to convince a Pulaski County Circuit judge that investigators were in the wrong.
Cainis Redmon Mackintrush, 27, whose trial is scheduled for next month, wanted Judge Herb Wright to disallow as evidence the marijuana that North Little Rock police seized from his car after a March traffic stop.
Instead, Wright ruled that investigators had a good reason to detain Mackintrush because he'd just picked up a suspicious package at the West Pershing Boulevard post office and signed for it with an assumed name.
Mackintrush is charged with possession of hydrocodone and marijuana with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia, charges that together carry up to 26 years in prison.
Mackintrush is now on parole for a 15-year prison sentence he received in 2008 for first-degree battery and firearm possession convictions for shooting two people in 2007. He also has a 2005 robbery conviction, court records show.
On Wednesday, Mackintrush's attorney, Bobby Digby II, argued that the 34-minute wait for the drug dog exceeded the 15-minute deadline set by court guidelines for detaining people during traffic stops without good cause.
The half-hour wait was the time it took police to get Cammack Village police's drug-sniffing dog to the corner of Fourth Street and Pike Avenue, where Mackintrush had been stopped for failing to signal a turn in his 2007 Chrysler 300, prosecutor Matt Stauffer said.
According to testimony from postal inspector Mickey Schuetzle, postal workers were suspicious of a package mailed to Darius Riggs at 2905 East Washington Ave. in North Little Rock because it smelled strongly of dryer sheets, which is a product sometimes used to mask the odor of illegal drugs. The return address was in Los Angeles, Schuetzle told the judge.
Mackintrush went to the post office to claim the package and signed for it as Riggs, Schuetzle testified. The defendant's driver's license and vehicle registration state that his residence is at 2114 Howard St. in Little Rock, according to testimony.
Detective Mike Brooks told the judge that he saw Mackintrush get into the Chrysler with the box and appear to open it before leaving the post office parking lot.
Another undercover officer followed the defendant and observed Mackintrush turn from Pershing onto Pike without signaling, and uniformed officer Bruce Moyster stopped the car on Pike Avenue. When Mackintrush refused a police request to search the Chrysler, Brooks said he called Cammack Village Police Chief Peter Powell, who testified that his dog alerted on the car three times while walking around the vehicle.
Police reported finding an unspecified "large" quantity of marijuana in the back seat next to the box along with a backpack containing more marijuana, with some hydrocodone tablets in the vehicle console.
Metro on 09/04/2014