A traffic stop on Interstate 30 in Miller County in late September turned up 17.8 pounds of marijuana and put a man with seven trips to Arkansas prisons and a Fort Smith woman in jail on drug charges, according to investigators and court records.
Terry Sythavong, 45, and Shienne Taylor Keopraseuth, 30, were arrested Sept. 23 by the Arkansas State Police and the Eighth South Narcotics Task Force, according to records of their first court appearances in Miller County Circuit Court. Both were still in the Miller County jail when their cases were last called Nov. 10 and are due back before Circuit Judge Wren Autrey on Dec. 1.
Investigators said a state trooper working the interstate stopped the 2008 Honda Accord Sythavong was driving because it showed no insurance. They said officers found 17.8 pounds of marijuana and that Keopraseuth had psilocybin mushrooms, Xanax and Adderall hidden in her pants.
Sythavong is being held on suspicion of possession of marijuana with purpose to deliver, more than 4 ounces but less than 25 pounds. A judge set his bond at $35,000.
Keopraseuth is being held on the same marijuana count along with possession of drug paraphernalia and three counts of possession of a controlled substance with purpose to deliver, one each for Schedule I, Schedule II and Schedule III drugs. Her bond is $50,000.
Prosecutors had not filed formal charges against either of them as of Friday. Possession of more than 4 ounces but less than 25 pounds of marijuana with purpose to deliver is a Class C felony in Arkansas, punishable by three to 10 years in prison.
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Seven times in prison
Investigators said Sythavong has an extensive criminal history and is flagged in law enforcement records as a violent gang member.
Arkansas Division of Correction records show he has been incarcerated in state prison seven times and is serving a 20-year sentence out of Yell County. The division’s inmate database currently lists his location as the Miller County waiting list, the designation for state inmates held in a county jail until a prison bed opens.
That sentence came in March 2014, when Sythavong pleaded guilty in Yell County Circuit Court to first-degree battery and possession of a firearm by a felon in a case from August 2013. Prosecutors had also charged him as a habitual offender, which allows longer sentences for defendants with earlier felony convictions. That count was dropped as part of the plea agreement, and he was sentenced to two concurrent 20-year terms, according to the sentencing order. Prison records show he became eligible for parole in September 2019.
His earlier prison sentences, according to state prison and court records:
- 2005, Pope County: four years on a felony drug charge involving a Schedule I or II narcotic or methamphetamine.
- 2006, Pope County: two years on felony drug and drug paraphernalia charges.
- 2008, Yell County: four years for aggravated assault and possession of a firearm by a felon.
His address in the forfeiture case is in Belleville, in Yell County.
State wants the car and $1,526
Two days after the arrests, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Krystal Cecil filed a civil forfeiture complaint, 46CV-26-871, asking a judge to award the state the Honda and $1,526 in cash. The complaint says task force officer Nathan Lavender seized both about 1 p.m. Sept. 23 and that the car was used to transport drugs and the money was tied to drug sales.
Sythavong is contesting it. In a handwritten letter from the jail that the circuit clerk filed Oct. 28, he told the court he has receipts and W-2 forms showing where the money came from and that the car was a gift from his mother.
He also disputed the stop. He wrote that he was “illegally pulled over,” that he did have insurance and that video from the trooper’s car will contradict the trooper’s account of an overwhelming smell of marijuana.
In the same letter he asked for leniency. “I will take probation and can I go to a rehab,” he wrote. “I have a drug problem and I need rehab.”
Keopraseuth’s record
Keopraseuth pleaded guilty in February 2023 in Sebastian County Circuit Court to possession of methamphetamine and received a six-year suspended sentence, according to the sentencing order in that case, which was filed under the name Shienne Taylor Whitham. Prosecutors there have twice asked a judge to revoke the suspended sentence. A warrant was issued March 5 after she did not appear for a revocation hearing, the docket shows.
Her most recent address in the Sebastian County file is in Fort Smith.
The arrest records for the Miller County cases are filed as 46AW-26-551 and 46AW-26-552.
An arrest is an accusation. Both are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.
