Search warrant leads police to pot discovery

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. - Police serving a search warrant Thursday in a burglary case turned up 18 marijuana plants growing in a home’s backyard, arresting the alleged pot grower who implicated another man in the burglary, according to affidavits released Friday.

Police discovered the marijuana plants, which were slightly
more than a foot tall, at a home in the 1900 block of Southeast Joyner Circle, where they were serving a search warrant in connection with a June 25 burglary, according to records and Detective Timothy Reilly.

Nicholas Taylor Mello, 18, who lives at the home with his mother,
said he was growing the marijuana, Reilly said. Mello’s mother denied knowing about the pot and wasn’t arrested, Reilly said.

Mello, who faces a felony marijuana cultivation charge, told
investigators that he drove Tamarius “Bird” Alexander, 24, to the
home burglarized June 25 and waited while Alexander committed
the crime. Mello said he saw Alexander roll vehicle tires from
the home and put them in the trunk and then his garage.

On Tuesday, one of the burglary victims called a detective
and said he got an anonymous call indicating the rims were
in Kayla Strauss’s garage at an address in the 4900 block
of Northwest Fawn Street. Strauss, 22, is Alexander’s girlfriend.

Police went to the home and Strauss “wheeled out one of the rims
with low profile tires and spinners with them,” an affidavit states.
She said a man brought her the items.

Police got a search warrant and turned up a Panasonic television that also had been reported stolen. Strauss said she bought it from the man who brought over the rims “knowing it might be stolen.” Strauss was arrested Wednesday on a grand theft (possession) charge.

Strauss on Thursday was arrested on a trafficking in hydrocodone charge. Pills she said were hers that police found Wednesday while searching the home were determined to be acetaminophen hydrocodone. Strauss said she didn’t have a prescription and that she got the pills from a relative in Fort Pierce.

Police Wednesday also turned up a .38 caliber handgun in a dresser drawer. Alexander said the gun belonged to Strauss and that he knew the weapon was there. At the time, he was arrested on a possession of a firearm by a convicted felon charge.

On Thursday, he was arrested on burglary of an unoccupied dwelling and grand theft charges in connection with the June 25 burglary.

Reilly declined to say whether Alexander and Mello are friends, and also declined to discuss other areas of the investigation.