Parolee’s ‘fake’ yawns led Missouri cops to 514 pounds of weed in his car, police say

Police in Missouri say there were several pieces of evidence that pointed them toward the 514 pounds of marijuana in the Chevrolet Suburban driven by 61-year-old Ricky Allan Martin.

He denied a trooper’s request to search the vehicle during a traffic stop Thursday evening in the northbound lanes of Interstate 29 near St. Joseph, according to a news release from the Missouri Highway Patrol. That, of course, merely delayed the search — the trooper called in a Buchanan County K9 unit so that a drug-sniffing dog could give the vehicle a once-over.

He also couldn’t provide proof that he had rented the Suburban in the “Nevada-California” area, either, as he had said during the stop, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. But one clue jumps off the police report more than either of those two.

Martin “profusely fake yawned” as Trooper Jeff Maudlin, who wrote the incident report, questioned him during the stop about the heat lamps in the Suburban and the paperwork for the vehicle rental, which is “a common indicator of nervous/criminal behavior,” the newspaper reported.

It remains unclear whether Martin yawned too many times for the trooper’s taste or whether his yawns were too animated, but Buchanan County Sheriff’s Cpl. Vince Lippincott’s K9 partner, Shadow, alerted to the possible presence of drugs in the vehicle as the dog approached the back portion of the Suburban, according to the release and accompanying photo.

The photo shows a pile of vacuum-sealed bags that contain a pound or more of marijuana apiece. The marijuana was found in totes in the backseat of the Suburban, police say.

Martin was charged with first-degree drug trafficking and possession of a controlled substance, according to the MSHP release.

The Post-Dispatch reported that by Wednesday Martin had been put back in prison for a parole violation. He was initially held at the Andrew County Jail in Savannah, Missouri, after his arrest Thursday, according to KQ2.

Martin, a resident of the St. Louis suburb of Sunset Hills, had served a 13-year sentence for robbery, according to jail records.