OCSD: Meth, ledger found in drug dealer’s van; after arrest suspect tries to distribute meth in jail

Summer Dawn Stephens, 37, of Dora, is being held in the Ozark County Jail on a $5,000 cash only bond. A bond reduction hearing was scheduled for Tuesday before Associate Circuit Judge Raymond Gross. Details of that hearing were not available at press time. 

Stephens is charged with two counts of delivery of methamphetamine, unlawful use of a weapon (possessing a firearm and a felony-level controlled substance at the same time) and resisting arrest for a felony. 

According to the probable cause statement prepared by Ozark County Sheriff’s Deputy Stephen A. Ator, just before midnight June 5, the officer was dispatched to assist in the pursuit of a vehicle on County Road 808 in Ozark County.

 

Fleeing from officers, passenger with warrant

Ator was notified that OCSD Reserve Deputy Chris Thompson attempted to stop a white 1998 Chevy Astro van with no license plates, but when the deputy activated his emergency lights and siren, the driver of the van accelerated faster. Thompson initiated a pursuit, and the van turned onto County Road 808, a dead-end county road near the Gainesville Livestock Auction. After continuing a short distance down the gravel road, the van pulled over onto the side of the road. 

Thompson exited his patrol vehicle and approached the driver’s side door where Stephens was sitting. The deputy asked the woman why she’d drove away from him when he turned on his lights and sirens to conduct a traffic stop. Stephens reportedly told the officer that she’d fled because her passenger, Newt Souder, had an arrest warrant. 

The deputy placed Souder in handcuffs and took him into custody on the active warrant. 

 

Admitted possession of meth ‘crumbs’

When Ator arrived on scene, he approached Stephens and the pair of officers asked the woman if she had anything illegal in her van. 

“…she said she had some baggies with methamphetamine crumbs in them in a wooden box and a .22-caliber handgun on the floorboard between the driver and passenger seats,” Ator explained in the report. 

Ator placed handcuffs on the woman and placed her under arrest for possession of a controlled substance. 

Search of van turns up drugs, distribution 

supplies, gun, ammo and ledger of sales 

Ator radioed the Ozark County Sheriff’s dispatch office and asked for the dispatcher to send a towing company to remove the white van and put it into the sheriff’s office impound lot. 

After the van was towed, Ator and Thompson met Missouri State Highway Patrol Trooper Dan Johnson, and the three officers searched the vehicle. 

“We located a multicolored wooden box on the floorboard of the van between the driver and passenger seat containing 3.2 grams of a white crystalline substance that field tested positive for methamphetamine, 3 small clear plastic baggies containing 2 grams of marijuana per baggie, a Motorola cellphone, unused syringes, a digital scale, 17 small clear plastic baggies, a knife, a small spoon, a one-dollar bill,” Ator wrote. “We located on the floorboard of the van between the driver seat and passenger seat a fully loaded Phoenix Arms Model HP22A … .22 caliber semiautomatic handgun, 52 rounds of .22 caliber long rifle ammunition.”

In addition to the drugs, distribution items, gun and ammo, the officers found a transaction book.

“In Ms. Stephens purse, we found two ledgers. One ledger was a calendar of dates with weights of product sold. One ledger had names of people and amounts of monies owed and paid.”

 

Asking jailer to deliver stockings (with meth inside) to another inmate

Once Stephens was booked into the Ozark County Jail, she was placed into a cell pod. While in that pod, she reportedly contacted OCSD Jailer Sarah Warden and asked the jailer to give a pair of stockings to another inmate in another cell pod in the jail. 

The jailer inspected the item before delivering them and found one gram of a crystalline substance wrapped in toilet paper inside the stockings, the report says. The substance field-tested positive for methamphetamine. 

Ozark County Times

504 Third Steet
PO Box 188
Gainesville, MO 65655

Phone: (417) 679-4641
Fax: (417) 679-3423