Brothers charged with trafficking cocaine

Tuesday, 23 January 2007

Police charged two brothers with trafficking cocaine after finding suspected cocaine on the clothes of a man who punched an officer during a foot chase, according to investigators. On Friday night, Bainbridge Public Safety Investigator Frank Green received information a man riding in a car traveling through Bainbridge might be in possession of illegal drugs. Green stopped the car, driven by 25-year-old Anquavin Howell of Tallahassee, Fla., in the parking lot of a business near the intersection of South Lamar Street and Shotwell Street in central Bainbridge. Rashard T. Howell, 23, of 712 Washington St., Bainbridge, was a passenger in the car. Investigator Mark Esquivel and other officers arrived and Green prepared to search the car after Anquavin Howell gave him permission to do so. However, Rashard Howell then fled on foot across the street into a grocery store parking lot, with Esquivel in close pursuit, coming close enough to grab his jacket in attempt to stop him. Rashard Howell then turned and struck Esquivel in the face with a closed fist, after which the investigator and Capt. Robert Humphrey tackled the suspect and arrested him despite Howell's attempts to resist arrest, Green said. In Rashard Howell's clothing, investigators found more than an ounce of cocaine, with a street value of approximately $3,000, Green said. Both Howell brothers were charged with trafficking cocaine. Under Georgia law, persons convicted of bringing more than 28 grams (equal to about one ounce) of cocaine into the state can receive a mandatory minimum 10-year sentence and ordered to pay a $200,000 fine. Anquavin Howell was also charged with a failure to appear on a traffic stop, while Rashard Howell was also charged with obstruction and violating the terms of his parole on a 2004 conviction for possession of cocaine, for which he had served just under four months in prison, according to a database maintained by the Georgia Department of Corrections.