Man pleads not guilty to possession charges

Appearing on Tuesday before Judge Molly Owen for his arraignment, Devin Williams entered not guilty pleas to one felony count of criminal possession of dangerous drugs and one misdemeanor count of criminal possession of drug paraphernalia. Judge Owen set the jury trial for March 13, 2023.

Per the charging documents, on August 26, 2022, officers responded to a complaint of a possible impaired driver in Thompson Falls. After locating the suspect vehicle with the assistance of the reporting party, officers approached the driver, who informed the officers he was in town visiting an individual known by officers to be involved with the drug trade. Williams was initially cited with two traffic violations.

When asked if there was anything illegal in his vehicle, Willams allegedly started mumbling, changing the subject, and became more emotional. Officers were denied permission to search the vehicle, but when looking through the windows, a small ziplock bag containing what appeared to be a small amount of methamphetamine and what appeared to be a pipe wrapped in a paper towel was in plain sight. Williams reportedly told officers that the substance was meth.

J immy McCracken appeared for a hearing on a petition to revoke his probation. McCracken was sentenced on his original charges on April 26, 2022, with his probation officer allegeding six violations of McCracken’s probation conditions since that time. McCracken entered general denials to those violations. Judge Owen set a contested hearing on the merits for October 11, 2022.

Roger Brice Trull was sentenced to five years at the Montana State Prison, with all five years suspended, for one count of criminal possession of dangerous drugs. Trull’s sentence is to run concurrent to the sentence imposed in a separate Sanders County criminal case. Judge Owen took a brief moment to commend Trull on the positive steps he has taken following these charges, saying that Trull has done more than most defendants she has seen facing the same charges.