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Mayor of a Guthrie County town & her husband arrested on drug charges

News

January 17th, 2019 by Ric Hanson

(UPDATED) — The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office reports the Mayor of Jamaica and her husband have been arrested on drug charges. Mayor LaDonna, and Randy Kennedy, were taken into custody after a marijuana growing operation was located inside their home during the execution of a search warrant.

Randy Kennedy

Ladonna Kennedy

The couple face charges that include: manufacture with intent to deliver no more than 50 kilograms of marijuana, class D felony; two counts of failure to affix a drug stamp, class D felonies; one count of knowingly keeping a dwelling for possessing or selling a controlled substance, an aggravated misdemeanor; and possession of a controlled substance – first offense, a serious misdemeanor.

Kennedy and her husband were initially held on $18,300 bond, but they have since been released by a Dallas County Magistrate (filling in for the Guthrie County Magistrate) on their own recognizance.

Their arrests happened Wednesday, after Guthrie County Deputies went to 500 1st Ave. in Jamaica on a tip that Randy Halterman was located at the residence. Halterman was wanted out of Story County on an arrest warrant for Attempted Murder. After attempting to make contact with the occupants of the residence, probable cause was established for a search warrant.

After the search warrant was issued, law enforcement conducted a search of the residence. Inside, a total of eighteen live plants were seized along with nine packages of marijuana. Halterman was not in the home. The Guthrie County Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the Dallas County Sheriff’s Office, the Greene County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa State Patrol.

Halterman was taken into custody Thursday afternoon, in Greene County. He was wanted following the shooting Saturday afternoon in Ames of 19-year-old Ieisha Jabbar. Police said got into a fight with another man when the gun he was holding went off and hit Jabbar in the chest. She is expected to be OK. Authorities say Halterman is the foster sibling of Randy Kennedy’s granddaughter.