A man charged with robbing a local pharmacy at gunpoint last week now faces a new charge after police say he smuggled prescription pills into the Carter County Detention Center.
Officers of the Carter County Sheriff’s Office arrested Jason Stout, 36, of 297 Keenburg Road, Elizabethton, on Friday evening and charged him with the introduction of contraband into a penal facility.
According to court documents, shortly before 6 p.m., CCSO Deputy Jonah Ingram was conducting a security check in the detention center when he saw Stout moving suspiciously.
“I quickly entered the cell and told Inmate Stout to hand over what he had,” Ingram said. “He said ‘I don’t have anything.’ I told him that I had already seen it, to hand it over. Inmate Stout then handed me a clear plastic tube full of blue pills.”
Ingram said jail medical staff identified the pills as Oxycodone and officers counted 55 pills inside the clear tube. Ingram placed the pills into evidence and obtained a warrant charging Stout with the introduction of contraband into a penal facility.
Stout was originally arrested on Thursday night by officers with the CCSO and charged with aggravated robbery with a firearm in connection with the robbery of the Hampton Pharmacy earlier that same day.
Pharmacy staff told police that a man wearing a blue coat and blue mask entered the store shortly before noon on Thursday and demanded employees give him Oxycodone, an opioid pain medication. According to court documents, the employees filled a bag with bottles of Oxycodone and Stout then fled the pharmacy. A tip later led police to Stout’s home on Keenburg Road. Deputies and investigators went to Stout’s home and knocked on the door, but no one answered. Investigators obtained a search warrant for the home and reported finding Stout inside as well as a plastic bag full of bulk Oxycodone bottles.
Stout appeared in Carter County General Sessions Court on Friday and was arraigned on the aggravated robbery charge. During the court appearance, Judge Keith Bowers Jr. asked Stout if he intended on hiring an attorney to represent him. “I really don’t plan to fight it,” Stout replied.
Bowers then cautioned Stout about making statements regarding the case against him while under oath in open court, telling him those statements could later be used against him. Bowers left Stout’s bond at $50,000, ordered him to have no contact with the pharmacy or its employees, and scheduled him to return to court on April 11.
Stout will return to General Sessions Court before that date to be arraigned on the new charge of introduction of contraband into a penal facility.