CEDAR CITY – A 24-year-old Cedar City man was brought to the Iron County Jail Sunday thanks to the work of a bail bond agent who put up the money to free him in May after he was arrested on three third-degree felony charges and a class B misdemeanor.

On Sept. 17, 5th District Court Judge Keith C. Barnes issued a $5,000, cash-only, failure-to-appear warrant for Demetrius Deandre Louis when Louis didn’t show up for court on Sept. 9 to turn in paperwork that would have allowed him to participate in the drug court program.

Drug court is a program established by Utah courts to approach drug crimes in a different way, in an attempt to decrease the numbers of drug-related crimes within communities, according to the Iron County Sheriff’s Office website.

On May 17 at 9 p.m., Louis was arrested and booked into the Iron County Jail, according to a probable cause statement filed in support of his arrest, after police allegedly found drugs while following up on an anonymous tip accusing Louis of selling marijuana out of his home.

“I explained the reason I was there and the information I had received,” the statement said. “Demetrius (Louis) admitted there was marijuana in a vehicle parked behind his house.”

Louis retrieved a container from the vehicle and gave it to police. The container allegedly held “about a quarter Oz of marijuana, with several individual baggies filled,” the statement said.

A warrant-based search of the vehicle further revealed Louis was also allegedly in possession of both hash and codeine – a pill he did not have a prescription for at the time, according to the statement.

Louis was already on felony probation for drugs so Iron County Adult Probation and Parole was called, and a search of Louis’ room yielded a scale and more drugs – this time meth.

Louis was charged with three third-degree felonies: one for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, one for possession of methamphetamine, and one for possession of a schedule II controlled substance; and two class B misdemeanors for possession of drug paraphernalia and hash.

Bonded out on May 28, Louis was released from the Iron County Jail with a promise to appear. According to court documents, Hy and Mike’s Bail Bonds put up a $15,000 bond to free him.

Louis requested permission to apply for drug court at his July 14 arraignment, court documents reported. Barnes scheduled a drug court referral hearing for July 29, but it was rescheduled to Aug. 5 because a “wrong hearing date” was assigned, court documents said.

Barnes requested a substance abuse evaluation at that hearing, but when Louis returned on Sept. 2 to submit his evaluation, the drug court paperwork was still incomplete. The matter was reset for Sept. 9, but Louis failed to appear.

As soon as she learned Louis had failed to appear in court, Corinne Mosdell, Hy and Mike’s licensed agent in Iron County, immediately set out to locate him. Doing all of the research, she located Louis in Las Vegas with the help of his family members and sent her bounty hunter from Salt Lake City to pick him up.

The bond that was posted by the company she contracts through becomes her responsibility if someone she has bailed out doesn’t meet their end of the agreement, Mosdell said, so that makes high dollar bailout like Louis’ top priority.

At first, Louis wasn’t in the area tipsters had relayed to her, Mosdell said, so after four hours of sitting in the hot Las Vegas sun looking for him, the bounty hunter called to tell her the trip was looking like a bust.

“I put in a call to his mom and his uncle,” Mosdell said, “and I finally got his uncle to get him to the gas station so that my bounty hunter could pick him up.”

Louis’ uncle was concerned about his nephew incurring additional charges or being picked up by police, Mosdell said, so he agreed to work with them.

“I think it was his uncle, anyway,” she said. “It may have been a cousin. I don’t really know, because he has more family than anyone I have ever known in my life, but they were very concerned about Demetrius’ best interest.”

Louis cooperated with the bounty hunter and was very polite the whole time, Mosdell said, which isn’t always the case in such situations. Oftentimes, someone who has skipped out on bail will fight back or run to avoid returning to jail, she said.

They were really lucky that the family members were willing to help, Mosdell said, because if they hadn’t been, they wouldn’t have caught up with Louis so quickly.

“His mom wants him to get the help that he needs,” Mosdell said. “She really does, and I think that she’s really sad that he didn’t get to do drug court.”

Louis appeared in 5th District Court by video Wednesday to answer for the failure to appear warrant, court documents reported. After requesting a public defender, Louis was advised by the state that the option of drug court is no longer available to him.

An arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday morning.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

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