
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, March 9, 1992                   TAG: 9203090141
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: MARY BISHOP STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

TROOPER CHECKS VAN, FINDS DRUGS

A state police trooper's check on a van of sleeping people in Rockbridge County early Sunday resulted in the arrests of three people from Texas and Tennessee and the seizure of marijuana estimated to be worth more than $3,000.

Edward L. Mason, 34, of Knoxville was charged with distribution of marijuana, a felony, and with marijuana possession, according to trooper R.P. Chappell Jr.

Also charged with distribution of marijuana were John M. Holtzclaw, 22, of Austin, Texas, and Jacqueline K. Sublett, 22, of Knoxville. The fourth person in the van, a woman, ran from the scene and was being sought by police Sunday.

Chappell said he found the van parked illegally about 1:20 a.m. at a rest area along Interstate 81 near Fairfield. The van's occupants said they were returning to Knoxville from a Grateful Dead concert in Hampton, the trooper said.

He said Mason quickly handed over about $80 worth of marijuana he was carrying. The rest of the drugs, said the trooper, were found by the Rockbridge County Sheriff's Department's narcotics dog inside a microwave oven and elsewhere in the van. He said $1,000 in cash and about $600 worth of household goods also were seized.

Holtzclaw is being held in the Rockbridge County Regional Jail on $8,000 bond. Mason and Sublett were released on bond Sunday.

by CNB