Published on Tuesday, January 31, 2006
in the Florida Times-Union

Too-dark car window tinting leads to drug arrests

Tinted windows a Florida Highway Patrol officer considered a little too dark resulted in the arrest Saturday of two Miami men authorities said were passing through Jacksonville with about a pound of cocaine in their car.

Trooper J.G. Earrey pulled a car over on Florida 9A near Baymeadows Road and talked to the driver about the window shading, which was too dark to see inside. The driver, Jimmie Lee Maultsby, said the car was a rental. He was asked who rented the car and his passenger said his wife, Shireleta, had rented the car.

When the trooper contacted the rental car company, though, they were told a Shireleta Reid, who was not in the car, was the only person authorized to drive the car and it was to have been turned back in on Jan. 11.

Because the driver and passenger gave conflicting information about where they were going and where they had been before driving through Jacksonville, Earrey ran criminal checks on both and found each had previous arrests for drug trafficking.

The trooper asked to search the vehicle and was given permission. He said three plastic-wrapped packages of cocaine and a loaded 9mm handgun were concealed in the trunk. Neither claimed ownership of the weapon or drugs.

Maultsby, 32, and Eddie Lee High, 46, of Miami were charged with trafficking in cocaine, possession of a controlled substance, possession of cocaine, armed possession of drugs, use of a firearm during the commission of a felony, unauthorized temporary use of a motor vehicle and possession of a concealed weapon by a felon.

Both were being held Monday in the Duval County jail in lieu of $1 million bail.