FAYETTEVILLE -- Lawyers for a woman charged in federal court with threatening someone on Facebook want firearms and ammunition found at her arrest suppressed as evidence in the case.
Daphne Ann Crawford, 29, was indicted on a federal charge of using the Internet to transmit a message threatening to injure another person with a firearm May 24. Use of the Internet is considered interstate commerce.
Legal lingo
Suppress
To exclude or prevent disclosure, often used in reference to evidence sought to be introduced at a criminal trial. A motion to suppress is a request to a judge to keep out evidence at a trial or hearing, often made when a party believes the evidence was unlawfully obtained. The party making the motion often claims the evidence was obtained as the result of an unlawful search and seizure.
Source: uslegal.com
Law enforcement officers searched her Fayetteville motel room after Crawford and her husband, Alan, were arrested.
Officers found three AR-15 rifles, a 12-gauge shotgun, six handguns and roughly 2,000 rounds of ammunition, including 721 rounds for the AR-15s, in the Crawfords' room at Value Place motel, according to the report.
The search also found clonazepam pills and THC wax, the report said. THC is the active ingredient in marijuana. Clonazepam is used as an anti-anxiety medicine.
"The firearms and ammunition were not listed in the search warrant requesting permission to search for digital evidence," according to a motion filed earlier this week by Joe Alfaro, one of Daphne Crawford's attorneys.
Their seizure was unconstitutional, the motion says. It contends the items don't fall under any available exception that would allow their seizure.
Crawford isn't a convicted felon, the firearms weren't stolen, the serial numbers weren't defaced and the guns weren't altered in any way that would make them illegal, according to the motion. There also was no evidence of drug trafficking or distribution that would warrant a belief they were related to criminal activity, the motion said.
A verbal altercation between Crawford, her husband and staff members happened at Mel's Diner, according to a preliminary arrest report. A customer posted a comment on Facebook about the incident.
Daphne Crawford responded online and said her husband would shoot the customer and the customer's family, according to court documents.
The Crawfords are being held at the Washington County jail.
Daphne and Alan Lewis Crawford Jr., both of whom list an address in Muldrow, Okla., were arrested early June 18 by Fayetteville police and the FBI.
Daphne Crawford faces misdemeanor charges in Washington County Circuit Court. She pleaded innocent to possession of clonazepam, possession of marijuana and endangering the welfare of a minor. The endangering charge is related to the clonazepam tablets and a gun being within reach of Crawford's young child in the motel room, authorities said. She was given an initial court date of Aug. 23.
Crawford also is charged with felony terroristic threatening. She has pleaded innocent and is being held with no bail set.
Alan Crawford, 28, is being held with no bail set and a federal hold. He is charged in state court with possession of clonazepam, possession of marijuana and endangering the welfare of a minor.
State Desk on 08/04/2016