MOUNT DORA, Fla. – A woman is facing her 15th felony case, at least. Her latest started while she was on probation, and the last two started during overnight traffic stops for registration issues.
A police officer in Florida “on routine patrol” reported seeing Shirley Jean Blanton’s “2009 black Dodge passenger car” on Nov. 6 at approximately 3:34 a.m. and “ran the license plate number.”
The plate “returned as the registration expired on 08/24, with no vehicle information attached to the license plate number. I got behind the vehicle and my marked patrol,” the officer wrote, “and activated my red and blue lights to initiate the traffic stop.”
Then, “She advised that she knew nothing about the vehicle information and that it was not her car. After speaking with Blanton, I ran the vehicle identification number through the Lake County Communication Center and (Dispatch) advised that it came back with [a different] Florida license plate number, which was not attached at the time of the traffic stop.
“When officers asked Blanton for consent to search the vehicle, she said ‘Yes,’” they reported. “Officers then requested Blanton to step out of the vehicle.”
The arrest report said officers searched the glove box and found “a wooden jewelry box with multiple clear plastic baggies with different types of narcotics.” Inside the baggies were a tan powder-like substance that was fentanyl, a crystal-like substance that was methamphetamine, a white rock-like substance that was crack cocaine, and a white powder-like substance that was cocaine.
Blanchard was charged with four felonies: possession of the methamphetamine, crack cocaine and cocaine, and trafficking fentanyl. That last charge is the reason she’s still in jail.
The arrest report said, “Due to Blanton being the only one in the vehicle, and the drugs being found in the glove box within arm’s reach, it put her in possession.”
Blanton was in a similar situation at approximately 2:57 a.m. on May 20, 2023.
This time, she was driving a white Chevy SUV and she passed an officer, who noticed she had “no license plate attached.”
The cop pulled her over, and wrote Blanton stated, “She had purchased the vehicle approximately one month prior, but has not registered it yet.”
That was true. “Blanton also provided the title to the vehicle,” the officer reported.
But then, “Dispatch advised Blanton had an active Orange County warrant for felony theft,” so she was arrested. The bond of $5,000 was much less than the bail that would be set soon after this traffic stop, which wasn’t over.
“I deployed my certified narcotic detection K9 partner, Mya,” the officer wrote. “Mya conducted an exterior open-air sniff,” and, “I observed her give a deep sniff at the front passenger door seam. Mya gave a final response/alert at this location.”
That led to “a probable cause search” and “a cut cigarillo pack which contained a white powder substance,” the officer reported, “which provided a presumptive positive result for cocaine.
“[Another officer] located a brown paper bag” with “a white rock-like substance,” the arrest report said, “which provided a presumptive positive result for cocaine.”
Blanton was charged with possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, and not having a motor vehicle registration. She spent less than 12 hours in jail before bailing out in lieu of $9,000.
Shirley Jean Blanton’s Sentence, Nov. 2, 2023 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
Six months later, on Nov. 2, Blanton changed her pleas to no contest on the cocaine and registration charges, and prosecutors did not pursue the paraphernalia charge. She was sentenced to time served on both counts.
Blanton’s record in Lake County includes convictions for retail theft shoplifting from 1992 and again in 1995, and attaching in unassigned license plate in 2002.
In 2006, she was convicted of uttering a forged instrument and felony petit theft in one case, robbery by sudden snatching and petit theft of stolen property in a second, and resisting without violence in a third.
The warrant for Blanton was for a nine-month-old charge of petit theft-two prior theft convictions, and it was the last of her 11 felony cases in Orange County.
She and a man “filled two shopping carts full of items” at a Dollar General store on Sept. 27, 2022, but they “only scanned the items in one of the carts,” the police report said.
“[An employee] advised that they loaded all the items into a teal Honda truck and left the area.” There was a long list of items, mostly food, with a total value of $105.32.
But the arrest report also said Blanton had just pawned a gold tennis bracelet and man’s ring before walking to the dollar store, and
one of the pawn shop managers told police, “She watched the male and female load two shopping carts into a teal truck and leave the area.”
Even better, the cop wrote, “She provided me with the female’s pawn slip which contained the female’s driver’s license and address.”
Blanton was wanted but apparently wasn’t arrested until the traffic stop in Lake County, almost nine months later.
Shirley Jean Blanton’s Plea Form, March 6, 2024 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
Then, it took 10 more months, until March 6 of this year, for Blanton to change her plea to no contest and get sentenced to 18 months of probation plus financial obligations.
Technical Sanctioning Program, Sept. 11, 2024 by Lenny Cohen on Scribd
Blanton was supposed to be on probation until Sept. 5, 2025, but she violated it by “failing to report to the probation officer as directed” on Aug. 8, and again Aug. 13, so she “failed to report as directed form the month of August 2024.”
Her punishment was supposed to be having to “report twice a month to the probation office for three months,” the court agreed on Oct. 7, but that never happened because Blanton was arrested again on Nov. 6.
This time, Blanton, 61, pleaded not guilty to all four charges, and she has been in jail ever since.
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