It started earlier this year for 44-year-old Willie Jo Johnstone of Stone County.
Court records note the Stone County Sheriff’s Office had received information that Johnstone had been dealing crystal methamphetamine in Stone, Izard, Cleburne, and Independence Counties.
The sheriff’s narcotics department set up meth buys from Johnstone by using a confidential informant, according to court information filed in Stone County Circuit Court. After those buys, Johnstone was arrested and charged with two counts of delivery of a controlled substance, namely meth, and two counts of using a communications device (cell phone) to connect with a buyer and carry out an unlawful act.
All four counts are felonies. Johnstone was placed on a $40,000 bond.
But the charges didn’t stop with the drug violations.
The court information said Johnstone’s wife had called authorities earlier in November because altercations had been ongoing between her and Willy Jo for several months.
On the day she called authorities, another altercation had occurred, and she told police Willie Jo had threatened her life, saying he had hit her in the face numerous times and choked her, according to authorities. Officials said she told them he threatened to run away with their child if she went ahead with domestic battery charges she had earlier filed against him. She also told investigators that her husband had threatened her he would have her killed if she went forward with the charges, the court docs said
Police say there were several of those incidents involving his wife, noting said Johnstone had harassed and threatened her both in person and via text messages to her cell phone.
Authorities also noted the victim had filed a “No Contact” order and an order of protection against Willy Jo, but he had violated those orders.
In addition to third-degree domestic battery, Willy Jo Johnstone was charged in Stone County Circuit Court with terroristic threatening in the first degree and intimidating a witness.
The bond on these charges was set at $50,000. Willy Jo Johnstone is currently in the Stone County Jail.
Image via Stone County Sheriff’s Department
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