TEXARKANA, Ark. -- A Texarkana man who came into police custody in 2020 was sentenced Wednesday to 14 years in federal prison for a drug crime.
Terron Jerome Pearse, 33, has been in custody since his arrest Oct. 12, 2020, by Texarkana, Arkansas, police. According to a criminal complaint filed in the Texarkana Division of the Western District of Arkansas, Pearse fell through the ceiling of his home on Cleveland Street while attempting to hide from officers in an attic or overhead crawl space.
According to the complaint, members of law enforcement were in the area of Pearse's home in the 1000 block of Cleveland when a Texarkana Arkansas Police Department officer observed Pearse walking away from an "apparently inoperable" Toyota Camry parked in front of the residence. The officer attempted to talk to Pearse, whom he knew to have an outstanding felony warrant, but Pearse refused and walked back into his residence.
Court records show the outstanding warrant was out of Miller County and resulted from a motion to revoke probation Pearse was serving for drug-related offenses.
TAPD patrol officers secured the area around the residence in hopes of taking Pearse into custody on the outstanding warrant.
Pearse's status in the criminal justice system included a search waiver already on file that allowed officers to look through the Camry. Inside officers allegedly found a red bag containing more than a pound of methamphetamine weighing 611 grams.
"While investigators were making attempts to get Pearse to come out of the residence, Pearse fell through the ceiling of the residence and was taken into custody," the complaint states.
Pearse appeared Wednesday afternoon for sentencing before U.S. District Judge Susan Hickey in Texarkana. A sentencing memorandum filed in advance of the hearing by Assistant Federal Public Defender Alex Wynn describes Pearse as disadvantaged from an early age.
According to the memo, Pearse suffers from an attention disorder compounded by the trauma of being raised in poverty.
"They lived in a housing authority, and Mr. Pearse had early exposure to local gangs dealing narcotics right outside of his front door. Mr. Pearse recalls feeling like an outcast in school because he had to wear old clothes that had been handed down, and often had to wear the same clothes multiple days during the week," the complaint states.
The memo laments that Pearse fell into a life of crime after being "adopted" into the "drug culture" in his Texarkana neighborhood. Pearse began racking up convictions for state and federal drug offenses during adulthood.
Hickey sentenced Pearse to 168 months in federal prison with credit for time served in federal custody. Hickey recommended Pearse for intensive drug treatment and vocational training while in the Bureau of Prisons. After release from prison, Pearse will be supervised for three years.
There is no parole from a federal sentence, though offenders may earn up to 54 days of credit per year for good behavior.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Graham Jones represented the government.