On Thursday last week around 9 p.m., Deputy Steven Richardson with Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department patrolled Westel Rd and noticed a 1996 Gold color Ford leaving the GreenWave gas station.

The vehicle noticed Richardson’s patrol car and came to an abrupt stop. While behind the vehicle, Richardson noticed the vehicle constantly hitting the brakes, maintaining a speed between 30 and 35 MPH, and crossing the fog line around 10 times.

In his report, Richardson said, “Based on my training and experience, if a driver is watching me in their mirrors, they will constantly cross the fog line.”

Richardson requested assistance from Deputy Alderman, and eventually conducted a stop in Rockwood off of Highway 70 and identified the driver as Raylee Hawkins with passenger Jared Smith.

Richardson noticed the driver was breathing rapidly and talking a lot about her ‘travel plans’. When asked why she crossed the fog line so many times, Hawkins said her vehicle had all different size tires and issues with the sway bar, while also admitting to not having insurance on her vehicle.

Richardson asked Hawkins to step out of her car so he could write her citations, but had to tell her repeatedly to exit, saying Hawkins had ‘audio exclusion’.

While writing citations, Hawkins talked about wanting to start up a ‘designated driver service’, and kept crossing her arms and looking back at her vehicle. Richardson asked her if there was anything illegal in the vehicle, and Hawkins answered no while also denying consent to search her vehicle.

Before the deputy could run his K9 over the vehicle, she admitted to having a ‘roach’ in the vehicle. Richardson said he could see she was panicking, with a shuttering voice and rapid breathing.

The deputy asked about certain drugs and if they were in her vehicle, to which Hawkins said no to all, but paused before answering in regards to cocaine, and turned away when asked about paraphernalia such as pipes, scales, and bags.

Richardson located a purse on the passenger side floorboard with 20 bags and a black magnetic
box containing two bags of a white powdery substance weighing around 13.07 grams believed to
be Cocaine, as well as a working set of scales and small cut straws with residue in them.

Richardson said he believes Hawkins was involved in selling illegal narcotics.

After reading Miranda Warnings to Hawkins, her passenger Jared Smith denied knowing of the narcotics in the vehicle. Hawkins was arrested and transported by Deputy Alderman to the Cumberland County Jail without incident.