By Shavonne Potts
spotts@salisburypost.com
What started out as domestic trouble at a local hotel led Salisbury Police to seize $11,000 worth of cocaine and weapons.
Three people were charged in the Wednesday morning incident, including one that already has been implicated indirectly in a pending murder case.
Salisbury Police officers were called to the Travel Lodge at South Jake Alexander Boulevard just before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
When Officer Patrick Schmeltzer arrived at the hotel, Officer Joe Miller had three people already outside.
Schmeltzer arrived to find a broken hotel window and the smell of burning marijuana.
He looked inside the room and saw a marijuana roach in the trash can.
“When I noticed the marijuana, it sent up red flags,” he said.
A search of the suspects and their vehicles revealed 48.6 grams of crack cocaine, 8 grams of marijuana, two pistols ó one with the barrel cut short.
Ryan Pal Cauthen, 25, whose address is listed as the streets of Salisbury, was charged with trafficking in cocaine and marijuana and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Titus Vinson, 23, of 2109 Airport Road, Apt. A, Salisbury, was charged with cocaine possession.
Veronica Regina McCracken, 42, of 729 Ryan St., Salisbury, was charged with possession of cocaine and drug paraphernalia.
Schmeltzer explained that officers found seven crack rocks were found in Cauthen’s pocket and McCracken admitted to having a crack pipe and some crack in her purse.
Police records also show officers charged McCracken with possession of drug paraphernalia three days earlier after a traffic stop on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue.
Officers also found more cocaine inside the arm rest of Vinson’s car, and when Schmeltzer searched the scooter Cauthen was riding, he found a crack cookie inside and a large black canvas bag.
“I picked up the bag, which was heavy,” he said.
When the officer of five years looked inside he was surprised to find: 12 individual baggies of cocaine, individual baggies of marijuana, $583, a digital scale, a razor blade and two loaded pistols ó a 9 mm and a .44-caliber Magnum.
The Magnum is typically used to hunt large game and was the gun favored by Clint Eastwood in his “make-my-day” “Dirty Harry” movie. The big caliber pistol normally boasts a 9 1/2-inch barrel.The gun seized from Cauthen had the majority of the barrel sawed off, making it much more dangerous, the officer said.
Schmeltzer was conducting an inventory search hoping to find some possible identification inside the scooter.
“I was surprised,” he said.
He also found about eight hydrocodone tablets.
“This is actual fruits of doing good police work. You can’t get much better than that,” Deputy Chief Steve Whitley told reporters Thursday.
McCracken and Cauthen remain in the Rowan County Detention Center.
Vinson has since been released under a $5,000 bond.
He was charged in September 2006 with accessory after the fact in the murder of Anthony McFadden, who was beaten and shot several times in the chest near Salisbury High School. At least nine people have been charged in connection with McFadden’s death.