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Cops: Man stashes cash, gun, drugs in woman’s clothes during chase
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
A man put drugs, $5,000 cash and a handgun in the pants of a woman Thursday while he was being chased by police, authorities said.
Bianca Pressley, 21, of Upland Avenue, and Tyrell Hollis, 22, of Curry Place, were arraigned Friday in municipal court before Judge Robert Milich.
Vice officers Mike Quinn and Jimmy Hughes Jr. tried to pull over a car driven by Hollis about 2:55 p.m. for an illegal turn in which he almost caused an accident, reports said.
As Hollis was chased down several South Side streets, the officers saw him leaning toward a woman in the passenger’s seat of the car, who reports said was Pressley.
Hollis pulled over in a parking lot at Marion Avenue and Market Street and was ordered out of the car. Reports said Hollis and Pressley both smelled like raw marijuana.
Pressley purportedly gave a bag of suspected marijuana to police. When a female parole officer arrived to help search her, Pressley had a .40-caliber handgun and $5,000 in the front of her pants and bags of suspected crack cocaine and suspected heroin in her bra, reports said.
Pressley repeatedly told police, “It’s all his,” as she was being searched, reports said.
Both were taken to the Mahoning County jail pending their arraignment.
Pressley is out on 10 percent of a $30,000 bond as she awaits two pending felony drug cases that were bound over from municipal court to the county grand jury last month. She was one of two people arrested Dec. 2 at a home on Delaware Avenue, where police found a large amount of suspected crack cocaine and more than $1,800 in her purse.
The amount of cocaine found in the home was so large that Pressley faces a first-degree felony charge of possession of cocaine in addition to a third-degree felony charge of possession of cocaine. A first-degree felony is the highest degree in Ohio.
Court records show Hollis served eight months in prison after he pleaded guilty in 2014 to two counts of possession of heroin.
Both face charges of improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle, possession of heroin, possession of cocaine and possession of marijuana.
Hollis faces an additional charge of tampering with evidence.
The gun was the ninth weapon seized by police this week.