Harrington pleads to possession during April traffic stop

Dustin Heath Harrington pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance. He was sentenced to three years in the Missouri Department of Corrections to run concurrent with all current cases. Pursuant to a plea agreement the charge of unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia was dismissed.

Charges against Harrington stem from an April 23, 2025, traffic stop in which Harrington was the passenger in a car being driven by Vantrez Jones of Georgia.

According to the probable cause statement in the case, on April 19, the Mountain Home (Arkansas) Police Department contacted the Ozark County Sheriff’s office and advised officers that a silver SUV bearing New York plates was traveling north on J Highway with a driver who had been going to bars in the area, trying to cash fake checks.

Ozark County Sheriff Cass Martin came across a Hyundai Santa Fe with New York plates and initiated an investigative traffic stop on the vehicle on Highway 160 near Bulldog Drive in Gainesville. 

When the sheriff asked dispatch to run a search on Jones’s identity, it showed that he had an active felony fugitive warrant issued against him from Harrison County, Mississippi, for trafficking a controlled substance and possession of a controlled substance. The warrant included full extradition. 

Martin was informed that Arkansas investigators had requested that Harrington be detained and brought in for questioning.

An Arkansas investigator, Lt. Aaron Phillips arrived at the Ozark County Sheriff’s Office and conducted an interview with Harrington. He later told the sheriff that Harrington had told him he had methamphetamine in his backpack and that he “self medicates,” the report says. 

The sheriff requested a search warrant for the vehicle, which was being stored in the Ozark County Sheriff’s Department’s storage locker. 

“I located the backpack in the passenger side back seat. Contents inside the backpack were two black zip bags, one containing 4 grams of field-tested positive methamphetamine, another black zip bag with a straw, four grams of field-tested positive methamphetamine, two glass smoking devices field-tested positive for methamphetamine and a digital scale field-tested positive for methamphetamine,” the report says.