Forgetting to use a blinker landed three Odessans in the Ector County jail recently on drug charges.
According to an Odessa Police Department report, an officer pulled over a Ford F-150 around 10 p.m. Nov. 30 because the driver didn’t use his turn signal when turning from East 23rd Street onto Andrews Highway.
The officer wrote in his report that he decided to deploy his drug-detecting partner, K9 Officer Randy, because all three of the occupants of the vehicle seemed nervous and the driver, Joey Mundell, looked radically different from his driver’s license and he suspected it’s because Mundell, 29, has been using drugs.
The canine alerted to the presence of narcotics within the truck and during a subsequent search the officer found 15.2 grams of methamphetamine, digital scales, meth pipes and small baggies, the report indicated.
Mundell, Vanessa Jean Johnston, 33, and Andrew Mendieta, 23, were arrested on suspicion of manufacturing/delivery of a controlled substance, greater than four grams, a first-degree felony punishable by five years to life in prison.
Mundell remains in the Ector County jail on an $80,000 surety bond. Johnston is being held on a $75,000 bond, but she’s also being held without bond because prosecutors have filed a motion to adjudicate her guilty in another drug case she had been given deferred adjudication for.
Mendieta’s bail has been set at $60,000.
