A sex offender on parole was arrested on multiple felony gun and drug charges Friday afternoon following a traffic stop for a cracked windshield on a vehicle he was a passenger in.
Deangelo Michael Lover, 33, who is reportedly homeless, was taken into custody shortly before 2 p.m. and charged with felony counts of simultaneous possession of drugs and a firearm, punishable by up to life in prison, possession of a controlled substance, meth, with purpose to deliver, punishable by up to 30 years, possession of a firearm by certain persons, punishable by up to 20 years, and misdemeanor counts of possession of marijuana with purpose to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia, each punishable by up to one year in jail.
Lover remained in custody on a zero bond parole hold and was set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to the affidavit, Lover had a previous felony conviction out of Garland County for sex abuse of a minor on June 16, 2020. According to court records, he was convicted on Sept. 24, 2018, of failure to comply with sex offender registration requirements and sentenced to 10 years in prison, all suspended. He was convicted again on the same charge on May 18, 2021, and sentenced to five years in prison, but was later paroled.
According to the probable cause affidavit, around 1:45 p.m. Friday, Arkansas State Police Trooper Tyree Sampson was on routine patrol when he saw a blue Hyundai passenger car northbound on Gaines Street with a cracked windshield so he stopped it at the corner of Malvern Avenue and Silver Street.
He made contact with the driver, identified as Megan Ashley Eads, 29, of Hot Springs, and while waiting for her to locate her license and registration he reportedly noted a “strong odor of marijuana” coming from the car.
He asked her passenger for his ID and he claimed he didn’t have any on him and allegedly gave a false name at first, but was eventually identified as Lover and was found to have a warrant for a parole violation.
Sampson asked Lover to step out of the vehicle and allegedly saw him throw a small black pouch into the back seat as he did so. He was taken into custody and in searching him, a plastic baggie with 7.0 grams of marijuana was found in his front pocket.
Inside the black pouch Lover allegedly threw Sampson reportedly found a baggie with a crystal substance, approximately 50.4 grams, or 1.7 ounces. In the passenger side door, he also reportedly found a blue box containing a glass pipe with residue. Inside the glove box, he reportedly found a black .380 caliber Taurus handgun.
Eads was taken into custody on a misdemeanor warrant for failure to appear and at that point, Lover reportedly stuck his head out the window and told her “It’s OK. It’s mine. Everything was on the passenger side.”
The 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force and Hot Springs police Special Investigation Division Unit responded to the jail and took possession of the drugs, gun and the vehicle. Eads was later released on a $1,000 bond.
