Disturbance call leads to arrest on drug, weapons charges

Gonzales County Sheriff’s deputies arrested a known convicted felon on drug and weapons charges as well as outstanding warrants after responding to a disturbance call on Nov. 21 — just three weeks after being arrested by GCSO on a federal parole violation warrant.

According to GCSO, deputies were dispatched at 8:10 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 21, to a home in the 200 block of County Road 342 for a reported disturbance involving a male subject known by deputies to act out with violence. When deputies arrived, they witnessed the subject, later identified as Robert Joseph Smith, 39, trying to leave the property in a vehicle.

Deputies instructed Smith to stop and get out of the vehicle, at which point he accelerated the car back towards his house, jumped out of the vehicle and ran on foot towards the rear of the residence. Deputies pursued Smith on foot and the suspect went back into the house through a side door. Officers chased him into the residence and swiftly apprehended Smith without incident as they were aware of his violent tendencies and wanted “to ensure the safety of all occupants and the general public,” GCSO said in a statement.

A search of Smith’s vehicle revealed a firearm was in plain sight on the passenger side of the car. Knowing Smith was a convicted felon, deputies placed him under arrest for unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon. With probable cause, they searched his vehicle for more weapons and located 0.17 ounces of marijuana and 5.6 ounces of a substance believed to be methamphetamine.

Additional charges of evading arrest or detention with previous convictions, possession of a controlled substance in penalty group 1 or 1B less than or equal to 200 grams and possession of marijuana less than two ounces were filed against Smith, who also had outstanding warrants for interfering with an emergency request for assistance, assault of a family or house member by impeding breathing and unlawful restraint.

Smith had just been arrested on Nov. 1 by GCSO deputies working a Border Star grant when they learned he was staying at a residence in Gonzales while he was the subject of an active felony warrant for federal parole violation. He was found in hiding in a closet in the home and was taken into custody without incident, but was apparently released from Gonzales County Jail after the parole hold was dropped by federal authorities.

Smith also was arrested in 2013 by San Antonio police for aggravated robbery with a deadly weapon after robbing a woman at gunpoint.

He remains currently in the Gonzales County Jail in lieu of $46,000 bond on the outstanding warrants and $75,500 bond on the new charges stemming from the Nov. 21 incident.