Jesse Repass and Tia Johnson

Jesse Repass and Tia Johnson

A Church Hill couple were charged with drug trafficking Sunday after a large quantity of meth was seized while the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Office was attempting to serve a probation violation arrest warrant.

Jesse Lelynn Repass, 35, pleaded guilty last year to charges including two counts of drug possession, two counts of driving on a revoked license, and two counts of possession of drug paraphernalia. He’d been wanted since March 7 for failure to appear at a hearing regarding his fine payments and probation violation.

Sunday evening HCSO Deputy Dustin Winter went to a residence on Jones Road in Church Hill to serve the arrest warrants on Repass, who was reportedly found hiding in a closet with a meth pipe inside the residence.

Winters reported that the residence was also occupied by Tia Richelle Johnson, 25, who was in the bathroom. Winters said he observed Johnson making suspicious movements in the bathroom, and refusing to come out.

Winters stated in his report that he observed Johnson lean out of the bathroom into a bedroom. When Winters went into the bedroom he reportedly located a baggy containing 19.1 grams of meth in an open dresser drawer.

A pill bottle containing another 1.5 grams of meth was located under the bathroom sink. Winters alleged that Johnson hid the meth there when he told her to come out of he bathroom.

“I showed them the bag of (19.1 grams of) meth, and Repass spontaneously stated that someone had given it to him and he meant to throw it away,” Winters stated in his report.

Repass was charged with possession of meth with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia. He was being held in the Hawkins County Jail without bond pending a preliminary hearing set for July 25.

Johnson was charged with tampering with evidence, possession of meth with intent to deliver and possession of drug paraphernalia.

At the time of her arrest she was free on $3,500 bond stemming from a July 7, 2021 arrest for meth possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. She too was being held without bond pending a preliminary hearing on the new charges set for July 25.

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