Tech student Elzabad Helon Ferguson III, 19, was cited in Evins residence hall Feb. 22 for simple possession of marijuana.
Tech police officers Jeffrey Bulakowski and Sandy Thompson were dispatched to Evins residence hall in reference to the smell of marijuana Friday about 1 a.m., according to the police report.
The officers arrived and knocked on the door. When the subject in the room opened the door, the officers smelled a “very strong odor of marijuana,” according to the report.
“I informed Ferguson of the reason we were at the door and told him what I smelled,” said Bulakowski.
According to the police report, Ferguson gave consent to Bulakowski to enter the room and discuss the issue.
Upon being questioned by the officers, Ferguson admitted that he and a friend had been smoking marijuana earlier that day. Bulakowski asked Ferguson if he had any more marijuana in the room and Ferguson stated he did not. According to the report, Bulakowski asked Ferguson if they could search the room and Ferguson consented. During the search the officers found a sandwich bag with a green-leafy substance wrapped in dryer sheets in the pocket of a hoodie. The weight of the marijuana was approximately 14 grams and will be sent to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation crime lab to be analyzed for an exact weight.
The report stated that Ferguson said it was his marijuana he had bought and it was about half an ounce. Thompson also found an empty bottle of Arbor Mist sangria in the room by the desk.
According to the report, Ferguson said there was a bowl in his car, but after a consented search, the officers did not find it.
Ferguson was cited to Putnam County General Sessions April 1.
