100 Marijuana Plants Found During Search; Two Men Arrested

Spokane County sheriff’s detectives arrested two North Side men June 8 on charges of possession of marijuana with intent to deliver and manufacturing the plant.

With a warrant to search for narcotics, detectives entered 6503 N. Calispel at about 1 p.m. and found Bret S. Norton, 40, and Thomas L. Orth, 34, inside, said sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan.

A search of the house uncovered more than 100 marijuana plants growing in two locations and 70 individual stems with attached buds, Reagan said.

Norton and Orth were booked into jail, and the marijuana was confiscated as evidence.

Man arrested on drug charges

A routine traffic stop led to a felony drug arrest Saturday evening.

Sheriff’s deputies stopped a vehicle on Division Street for an inoperative right headlight and found that the driver had a suspended license in Oregon, Reagan said.

Jonathon Bradley Brown, 19, of 548 E. Sanson, was placed in a patrol car by a deputy. When the officer opened the door to remove the suspect, he saw a plastic bag he thought might contain drugs, Reagan said. The deputy contacted the K-9 unit drug dog, which determined the bag did contain marijuana mushrooms, Reagan said.

Brown was booked into jail on a charge of possession of a controlled substance (mushrooms), a felony. While he was being searched, a bag of marijuana was also found.

Misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance (marijuana) and driving with a suspended license are pending.

Man and horse escape injury

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a shooting incident north of Spokane where a man and his horse escaped injury from a barrage of gunfire.

On June 4, between 9:30 and 10 p.m., a 57-year-old man was driving his pickup truck east on Blanchard Road to his home. He was pulling a horse trailer containing one horse.

He stopped for a bit at the summit of Blanchard Pass and then continued. He then heard gunshots behind him and saw a vehicle coming up behind him at a high speed, said inspector David Wiyrick. He noticed the gunshots appeared to be coming from the passenger side of the vehicle. The shooter would fire a series of shots, then back off, then approach again and fire more rounds.

The suspect drove up to the trailer as if to pass, then fired several more rounds and drove off, Wiyrick said.

Neither the man nor the horse was injured from the bullets.

The deputy investigating the incident counted 13 bullet holes or marks in the trailer and two in the pickup truck. The deputy said the angle of the bullet holes suggested the shooter was aiming toward the cab area of the victim’s vehicle.

A white full-size pickup was seen in the area just seconds before the gunfire started, Wiyrick said.