Alva Review-Courier -

When a deputy attempted to serve an arrest warrant, he didn’t find his man. Instead he found an odor that led to a search warrant.

Court records show Woods County Deputy Adam Honeyman went to a house in the 700 block of Maple Street in Alva Friday, Nov. 9, about 10:50 a.m. to attempt to serve an arrest warrant. Donovan Barrows answered the door and said the man he was looking for wasn’t there. Honeyman noticed an overwhelming odor of marijuana coming from the open doorway. He asked Barrows about the odor, and Barrows agreed it was coming from inside his residence but shifted the conversation back to the arrest warrant.

According to the affidavit, Barrows became uncooperative and belligerent saying that since the man Honeyman was looking for was not living there, he had no further reason to be there.

Additional law enforcement was contacted to secure the residence pending obtaining a search warrant for illegal controlled substances. There were four adults and one small child under the age of five occupying the residence. About 12:10 p.m. a search warrant was served to Barrows and the other adult occupants.

A marijuana smoking pipe was found in the shower curtain rod in the bathroom, a green leafy substance identified as marijuana was found in the bedroom occupied by Oren Howland and Angelica Johnston. Further search revealed smoking pipes and a plastic container with marijuana odor and residue. A glass mirror in the living room on the coffee table field tested positive for methamphetamine residue.

The small female child, age 17 months, was placed into protective custody and turned over to a Department of Human Services caseworker.

Angelica Leeann Johnston, 23, of Cherokee, and Oren Leon Howland, 34, of Kiowa, Kansas, have each been charged with child neglect, a felony. This crime is punishable by imprisonment not exceeding life or by a fine not less than $500 nor more than $5,000, or both such fine and imprisonment.

Both Johnston and Howland were also charged with two misdemeanors: possession of controlled dangerous substance (marijuana) and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.