A Leesburg woman and her Ocala companion were arrested on drug charges after being stopped with narcotics in their backpacks.
Deputies on patrol stopped a tan 2002 Chevy pickup truck with a poorly lit license plate at Morningside Drive and Radio Road in Leesburg at 12:45 a.m. Tuesday, May 26, according to an arrest report from the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. All three occupants, including a male driver, 36-year-old Katie Rene Oakley and 29-year-old Kari Nicole Schuer, sat in the front cab due to a large speaker box taking up all the room in the back.
The driver advised that he was on his way to drop off his friends at their homes. He denied consent for a search, but a positive alert to the odor of narcotics from a law enforcement K-9 meant the deputies no longer needed his permission. The occupants were then removed from the vehicle so the deputies could look through its interior, the report said.
Although they found nothing in the cab, they noticed several backpacks and carry bags in the bed of the truck. Oakley apologized for the mess inside one of the backpacks, as it was full of female clothes from doing laundry at the driver’s house. On the right-hand side of the bag was a clip that opened to revealed a pouch with a blue straw and white residue. A search of her person later revealed a bag of cocaine in her jeans pocket, the report said.
The backpack also contained mail addressed to Oakley, indicating it belonged to her. In the main pouch sat a .22 LR Taurus handgun loaded with four .22 caliber bullets. The pistol had a “break away” barrel, which revealed there were no bullets in the chamber. A check with dispatch determined she had several felony convictions, meaning she should not have been carrying a firearm, the report said.
When questioned about this, she stated she had the pistol because of a man who was trying to kill her. She believed she had the constitutional right to bear arms, even if she was a convicted felon, the report said.
Another backpack in the truck bed contained individually wrapped tinfoil with burnt residue, two small yellow pills and methamphetamine. There was also a Chime debit card with Schuer’s name inscribed on the back. She ultimately admitted there was a clear baggie of fentanyl in her shorts, as well, the report said.
The deputies subsequently asked Schuer for her name and date of birth, the former of which she lied about. With no record of this identity, they then asked for her Social Security number. She advised that she could not remember it, and she had been born in Minnesota but never issued an ID card, the report said.
At that point, law enforcement checked the name found on the back of the Chime card. A local hit directed them to a driver’s license number, which brought up a photo of Schuer that was used to correctly identify her. It also showed she had an active Marion County warrant, the report said.
Oakley was arrested on charges of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, drug paraphernalia and cocaine. The Michigan native was transported to the Lake County Jail without bond. She was also arrested in a U-Haul with drugs in April of this year and with fentanyl after leaving a drug house in April 2022.
Schuer was arrested on charges of possession of methamphetamine, fentanyl and drug paraphernalia, as well as give false ID to law enforcement officer. She was booked on a $7,000 bond and with a Marion County hold.