A Jay woman who was a passenger in a truck pulled over last Thursday in Milton for a missing tail light now faces a felony drug charge.
Julie Marie Mertens, 27, was riding in a blue Ford pickup traveling northbound on Avalon Boulevard in Milton when a deputy observed a missing passenger side tail light, according to a Santa Rosa County Sheriff's office report.
The deputy stopped the truck at the intersection of Kingry Road and Starwood Court and made contact with the driver, Robert Bankick. A canine deputy arrived on scene during the stop and utilized his canine, which resulted in a positive alert on the vehicle, the report said.
When the officer searched the vehicle, he located a small clear plastic bag with methamphetamine inside a black purse on the passenger seat, leaned against the center console of the vehicle. Next to the passenger seat there was a turned over cup which contained a small burned plastic bag with numerous white pills with imprint 319, near where Mertens had been sitting, the report stated.
The pills were identified as tramadol hydrochloride, a schedule 4 substance.
Mertens told the deputy she found the purse inside the truck and was using it. She said she used the hairbrush in the purse. Mertens denied ownership of the purse, according to the report.
Bankich, who owned and operated the vehicle, said the purse was not in his truck and Mertens got into the truck with the purse.
Mertens was arrested and charged with two counts felony possesson of a controlled substance without prescription. She was transported to the Santa Rosa County Jail, where she was given a bond of $10,000.
